MACOMB, IL – Hundreds gathered on the Macomb Downtown Square this afternoon to celebrate Monopoly inventor Lizzie Magie’s birthday with an unveiling ceremony for Macombopoly, Macomb’s newest attraction, presented by Visit Unforgettable Forgottonia, which serves as the Macomb Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Macombopoly is an immersive augmented reality app that allows users to play Monopoly on the Downtown Square, following the game board’s path around the square, starting with the “GO” square, represented with a Monopoly-styled marker on the sidewalk at the corner of the S Randolph Street and S Side Square.
The attraction has been in development for the better part of 6 years, spearheaded by the efforts of the Visit Unforgettable Forgottonia director Jock Hedblade.
“It’s kind of hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that this is actually happening right now, since it’s taken six years to get here. I think it’s really exciting to see how much of the community and state tourism (office) is here to support this. It really legitimizes the project that we’ve been working so hard on here for six years. I’m excited about it and I’m going to be even more excited when I can take a deep breath,” says Hedblade.
Efforts to make this possible were aided by many in the community, including business owners on the downtown Macomb square, the Macomb City Hall, and individuals including Allen Nemec, director of the McDonough County Genealogical Society, whose research helped to unearth Lizzie’s achievements during her lifetime. Nemec was also instrumental in tracking down Erin Anderson, a great-great-grandniece of Magie, who was brought to speak at the event and celebrate her distant relative’s accomplishments.
Says Macomb Mayor Mike Inman, “He’s been the guy behind the scenes making many of these things come to fruition.”
In addition to the app, sculptures crafted by local artisan Gabe Stevens stand at the inner four corners of the square, representing Magie, a pair of dice, an Abe Lincoln-styled stovepipe hat, and a a giant mockup of Lizzie’s original game, The Landlord’s Game, juxtaposed in part on one side against a modern representation of a Monopoly board.. Magie invented the Landlord’s Game to educate players about the pitfalls of capitalism. The game would later be co-opted by Charles Darrow, who gave it the Monopoly moniker before selling the copyright to Parker Brothers.
The app, produced by eAtlas, is available now to download and play by scanning the QR code located on the markers on the Downtown Macomb Square.
For more information, visit the Visit Unforgettable Forgottonia website.
