RIP Ken Graham/YellowDog

[atgonzalez]

Here are two of my pics of the memorial corner for him at the entrance of the Game Preserve Spring location.

 

[JoyStickRick]

Interview With Ken Graham by AT Gonzalez (FREE E-BOOK)

An interview with Ken Graham, video game programmer and founder of the Game Preserve arcade in Houston

nantucketebooks.com

Here's a companion webpage to the video interview that me and a friend put together for Nantucket E-Books. For additional context, please refer to the video if you haven't seen it already.

Some parts of the video interview had the audio garbled, but we were able to partially record them and transcribe them. I was e-mailing and texting Ken intermittently throughout December with a few post-script follow-up questions. He was nice enough to expand on a few points.

There's a few very interesting nuggets about Star Rider and Mystic Marathon that he was able to provide.

The page also has a gameography with his contributions listed. If any factual errors need to be corrected, let us know.

Thanks for your hard work on this project.

 

[atgonzalez]

Thanks for your hard work on this project.

Thank you! Ken's work was outstanding and underrated. I greatly appreciated the few weeks I was able to talk to him.

 

[vintagegamer]

Holy fuck first Ken Layton and now Yellowdog? This sucks.

My thoughts exactly

 

[andykmv]

Very sorry to hear that Ken Graham & Ken Layton have both passed away.
I had developed an obsession with Defender just before i joined KLOV for its wealth of related information, and the obsession soon grew to include other Williams video games of that era including Mystic Marathon, and Ken Graham was very helpful with those I that i have - I have working Bubbles and Sinistar boardsets thanks to Ken.
I am glad to have seen the interview video in this thread to "meet the man" behind YellowDog and hear his passion for the industry and community.
RIP YellowDog.

 

[SanTe]

Can we get YellowDog's member description updated to "In Memoriam," please. It still says "New member" and it really bugs me that this got overlooked. Thanks.

 

[bottlejunkie]

Can we get YellowDog's member description updated to "In Memorium," please. It still says "New member" and it really bugs me that this got overlooked. Thanks.

I second this, funny this came up, I was thinking about Ken yesterday while at work. I'll text Tombo to see if he can help.

 

[jawhn]

That would definitely be a cool Custom Title to apply to members that have passed on...

 

[SanTe]

That would definitely be a cool Custom Title to apply to members that have passed on...

It was already being used for a while. Here's an example. Here's another example.

Now that we're on the subject, I just noticed gregatron got missed too. There is a thread about his passing here.

This makes me wonder if the forum software change had something to do with it.

 

[bottlejunkie]

going through some old pics.

 

[vintagegamer]

Is YD in the Flynn shirt?

 

[FrizzleFried]

Nope...that's bottlejunkie...

 

[jawhn]

Official Bikini Contest Judge sounds like a great job. RIP again Ken!

 

[vintagegamer]

Depends on the entries :O

 

[SynaMax]

I've been working on a video about Sinistar's history for the 40th anniversary and I only recently found out about Ken and his work while doing research. Thank you so much @atgonzalez for filming that interview with him and preserving all this history.

 

[atgonzalez]

I've been working on a video about Sinistar's history for the 40th anniversary and I only recently found out about Ken and his work while doing research. Thank you so much @atgonzalez for filming that interview with him and preserving all this history.

No problem. Ken gave me a lot of insight into the development of that game. Contact me if you have any questions.

 

[braedel]

I recently did a full restore of a Mystic Marathon dedicated to Ken. The board set I used was from his estate. He was a really cool guy and is missed!



Boards from Ken's estate


~Brad

 

[atgonzalez]

Hello everyone. This is A.T. from Software Agents. The previous version of my interview with Ken was taken down due to a claim. We've been dealing with YouTube problems the past few months.

The interview was slightly recut and has since moved to this new channel. Me and my co-editor used this as a chance to correct two or three factual errors. This current version is as factually accurate as possible to the best of my ability. I'd like to know if we could re-edit the previous instance of the video interview being posted here because the old link is no longer valid.