BadDudesBruh
Well-known member
Holy sh*t, I cant believe it. I have seen Ken help THOUSANDS of people over the years. This is super sad.
RIP Ken.
RIP Ken.
RIP Ken Layton
- Thread starter GunSmoke Guy
- Start date
I'm really sad to hear about Ken. I never met the guy but always heard great things. He was the first guy to help me with monitor issues when I first started. He knew many things besides monitors like payphones and jukebox machines. He will be missed.
Ken was local to me, and he was such a great guy. He was always willing to listen to my issues with my machines, and give me advice on what to look for, and always would point me in the right direction. He never asked for anything in return, and was always willing to help. He was one of the good ones, and will be missed.
mc300baud
Well-known member
such sad news. i heard about it through mutual friends on FB but figured i'd log in here for the first time in a long time to see what folks were saying. turns out the last messages i had on here were with Ken in regards to the Olympia Pinball Museum (where he was teching) and the pandemic shut-downs (i also operate pins and video games in the Puget Sound area.)
now i'm never changing my sig. ever. not like it's changed in more than a decade anyway.
now i'm never changing my sig. ever. not like it's changed in more than a decade anyway.
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mc300baud
Well-known member
and since i'm here for the first time in a while, it would seem to be as good a time as any to give my brief "how i met Ken Layton" story...
back in mid 2000's, before i'd gotten seriously into collecting and had just a few machines, i responded to an ad on CL for working $10 arcade game PCBs and $5 marquees in Olympia (about 30 miles south of where in i live in Tacoma.) i headed down and met Steve, an old-school operator (still in business from what i understand,) who was trying to clear out some of the space in his garage storage/workshop. as i'm pawing through the piles of parts and chatting, in through the open garage door walks a kinda quiet and unassuming guy holding a beautiful early Midway coin door. he says hello then starts showing the door to the op, going over the details of the repairs he'd made and how he'd gotten such a nice paint job on the exterior. i admire his handiwork and we all chat for a bit, then i finish picking out parts and leave the two of 'em to get on with their business.
fast forward maybe a year or two and i'm on KLOV reading all these greats posts from this guy Ken who's incredibly knowledgeable and willing to help, and i realize he's local to me. then something clicks, maybe it was his profile pic, maybe something about our previous in-person conversation, but i suddenly it dawns in my sometimes kinda slow brain that Ken was who i had met in the garage not all that long before. didn't take but a few moments to jump on some meme-ish bandwagon for stupid sigs that was going around at the time, and i've had the same ever since.
sadly, that i think was the only time i talked with him in person. i know we'd crossed paths briefly at the NW Pinball and Arcade Show once or twice but never got another chance to say hello; we did occasionally message back and forth here.
oh, and just in case you were wondering, yeah, that was totally a different time and i walked away with a Galaga '88, MK 1 set, Twin Cobra, Twin Eagle, like-new R-Type, and several other boards (plus a nice stack of marquees) for like a bit over $100. if i'd known i'd probably just have cleaned Steve's extra boards out but who knew.
back in mid 2000's, before i'd gotten seriously into collecting and had just a few machines, i responded to an ad on CL for working $10 arcade game PCBs and $5 marquees in Olympia (about 30 miles south of where in i live in Tacoma.) i headed down and met Steve, an old-school operator (still in business from what i understand,) who was trying to clear out some of the space in his garage storage/workshop. as i'm pawing through the piles of parts and chatting, in through the open garage door walks a kinda quiet and unassuming guy holding a beautiful early Midway coin door. he says hello then starts showing the door to the op, going over the details of the repairs he'd made and how he'd gotten such a nice paint job on the exterior. i admire his handiwork and we all chat for a bit, then i finish picking out parts and leave the two of 'em to get on with their business.
fast forward maybe a year or two and i'm on KLOV reading all these greats posts from this guy Ken who's incredibly knowledgeable and willing to help, and i realize he's local to me. then something clicks, maybe it was his profile pic, maybe something about our previous in-person conversation, but i suddenly it dawns in my sometimes kinda slow brain that Ken was who i had met in the garage not all that long before. didn't take but a few moments to jump on some meme-ish bandwagon for stupid sigs that was going around at the time, and i've had the same ever since.
sadly, that i think was the only time i talked with him in person. i know we'd crossed paths briefly at the NW Pinball and Arcade Show once or twice but never got another chance to say hello; we did occasionally message back and forth here.
oh, and just in case you were wondering, yeah, that was totally a different time and i walked away with a Galaga '88, MK 1 set, Twin Cobra, Twin Eagle, like-new R-Type, and several other boards (plus a nice stack of marquees) for like a bit over $100. if i'd known i'd probably just have cleaned Steve's extra boards out but who knew.
