Who are Ken & TJ?

jow

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What do they have to do with the history of the hobby, and how do they have so many effing games?! :)

Seriously, a TON of the games at CAX were owned by them. Who are these dudes? Ex-Atari employees? Old OPs? Regular old Arcade/Pin nuts?

Where the hell do they store all those damn games? Do they frequent KLOV or RGVAC?

I always wondered about those 2 dudes...
 
here's a pic of Ken (left side) from atari Scott's picture thread. Talked to Ken a few times. He's a great guy. Can't say I ever really asked him about his collection or history in the hobby. Don't know if he was serious or joking but I heard him comment this year that he had to move the games into an actual barn to store them.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatscottphoto/4813073662/in/set-72157624420891047/
 
They are two of the organizers of CAX and have been jointly collecting games for over 10 years. Most of their games are in storage throughout the year except when they bring them to CAX.

They are very generous to donate their games and energy to make a great show.

They are also very nice guys...
 
who's that guy tanio, the guy on the right in that pic? he seemed kinda weird. i saw him just bouncing around the whole place.
 
This is TJ-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatscottphoto/4812459775/in/set-72157624420891047/

Ken an TJ have been collecting for more than 15 years, and probably closer to 20. They are the main organizers of the show. They have in excess of 300 games. What you see at the show each year, is not even 1/2 of what they have. Both are crazy about games and dedicated to preserving them, the right way (no ROM reader required).
 
Never met TJ before, but I've known Ken since about '97. One of the nicest guys you'd want to meet. I believe it was his and Dale Luck's idea originally to create the CAX in the late '90's.

Super guy.

Tom
 
8 truckloads of games at cax were ken and tj's. Many of the games without tags are also theirs. so figure about 150+ of the games at the show..

They thought it was funny someone took the time to leave a note that 1 of the pins was not level.. Setting up that many games is not an easy task. There are groups of helpers that work to try to get the games up and ready. A person was in charge of leveling the pins. Guy probably was doing that for several hours and maybe was off on a few. In the time it took for the person to bitch about it, the guy could have gotten on his knees and leveled it.

one other thing to consider, by saturday, ken, TJ, Jonathan, dale, brad, mark, scott and so many others have put in 100's of hours getting stuff ready for the show. The last 2 days are pretty insane. So some little details might get missed.. I think this year went a little better as it was the 2nd year at this location..
 
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at the last super auction in SJose, Ken was buying every $20 cab with a decent monitor. They looked like they were hauling away tons of stuff just for even parts. I had no idea they had such a huge collection.
 
This is TJ-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatscottphoto/4812459775/in/set-72157624420891047/

Ken an TJ have been collecting for more than 15 years, and probably closer to 20. They are the main organizers of the show. They have in excess of 300 games. What you see at the show each year, is not even 1/2 of what they have. Both are crazy about games and dedicated to preserving them, the right way (no ROM reader required).
Please tell them thank you very much on our behalf next time you see them. Thanks!
 
So whose Varkon was I playing all weekend?

I must say I cannot imagine the man hours that are put in to make this a great show, but it is appreciated by those of us who have no games, or electronic skills to help make it happen.

The layout this year was so much nicer than last year's - but that is probably more to do with extra space. My only issue and it's a minor one is that you could only hear music in one small corner of the gaming area. The prior year the music was in the middle so you could play a lot of different games and still rock along w/the music... yes, I know that is trivial - and with so much going on probably not a biggie...

Many thanks for putting on such a great show!
 
Nice, judging people without talking to them. Tanio is the nicest guy you could meet.

not weird in a bad way. just quiet or shy. i saw him at the airport and was gonna say hey as he looked like a klover but he took off for whatever he was doing. kept running by him through out the show and he never said anything. looking at jeri's facebook pics, though, he seems like a cool pinball dude, as that looks like that's his calling over arcade games.
 
So whose Varkon was I playing all weekend?

I must say I cannot imagine the man hours that are put in to make this a great show, but it is appreciated by those of us who have no games, or electronic skills to help make it happen.

The layout this year was so much nicer than last year's - but that is probably more to do with extra space. My only issue and it's a minor one is that you could only hear music in one small corner of the gaming area. The prior year the music was in the middle so you could play a lot of different games and still rock along w/the music... yes, I know that is trivial - and with so much going on probably not a biggie...

Many thanks for putting on such a great show!

I am not sure on varkon. Some games belong to people out of town and Ken and TJ store them and bring it to the show. Since varkon is a regular game, it might be ken and TJ's or some other show regular.

The 2nd year made the show space less of a mystery. I think move out went a little better. Everything was out by 2:30am on on tuesday. I think they organized the power usage a bit better this year as I don't think there were any popped circuits.

The main group of show organizers usually do a pre and post show meetings. As for the layout, I did see some sort of a floor plan. I think one of the reasons the video wall was on one side of the room was to keep it away from the pinballs. Or it could be thats where TJ set it up there and no one thought to/had the energy/the ability to move it. There probably was a reason, but since I don't go to any meetings, I am not sure. I am sure someone will read your comment on the music and take it into consideration for next year.

There are lots of little things that get missed. I would think more help would be a plus, but I would leave it up the show organizers to deicde if more help is needed. If you think you can help, feel free to drop a note on the CAX website. But you really need to say something weeks in advance. Knowing you can be counted on to help on thursday, friday or monday is way more useful that just showing up. If you have some special skills, let them know and they can try to find a use.. But if all you can do is work a windex bottle, thats important too.
 
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I figured with no brute strength I would mostly be getting in the way!! If I fly back next year, I'll gladly use the windex bottle if that would help!
 
But if all you can do is work a windex bottle, thats important too.

I'll help work the Windex Bottle next year (if I decide to fly in). ;)

Seriously, great show! Knowing what it takes to setup a 20x30 foot trade show booth. I can only imagine what it takes to fill a large hall with 470+ games and keep everything organized.

Glad I was able to meet tons of great collectors and enthusiasts!
 
The layout this year was so much nicer than last year's - but that is probably more to do with extra space. My only issue and it's a minor one is that you could only hear music in one small corner of the gaming area. The prior year the music was in the middle so you could play a lot of different games and still rock along w/the music... yes, I know that is trivial - and with so much going on probably not a biggie...

Many thanks for putting on such a great show!

I was one of the people in charge of the game layout this year and also last year. I listened to what everyone had to say about the layout last year and changes were made accordingly this year.

There was a floorplan for the layout we created a month or two ago. Most of what was on the floorplan was put into place, but there were a few areas that were changed on the fly due to field conditions in the room when we got there. One of those changes was the video wall you speak of,.. but the original location was on the opposite wall. It was not in the center like last year. To utilize the floor space to it's fullest, the video wall needs to be near the cocktail tables and those just happened to be in the back of the room this year. The plan of the room itself showed a slightly larger area in the back than what we actually had to work with. If we had what the room plan showed, there would have been another 10 or 15 feet between the video wall and the cocktail tables, which would have allowed more seating area to watch the video wall. Unfortunately that just wasn't the case, which then kinda crammed the video wall right up into the cocktail tables.

All in all, I think we used the space extremely well this year. The only wasted space was behind the laser disc games but we used that area to store all the equipment like hand trucks, dollies, extension cords, etc, etc. It was a crazy amount of work for everyone involved. I was there for a staggering 18 hours on Friday moving machines around, but it was well worth it. I think it all came together excellent. I applaud everyone involved on Thursday's and Friday's setup.
 
Nice, judging people without talking to them. Tanio is the nicest guy you could meet.

I assumed he was kidding. Nothing judgmental about his post. I wasn't at the event so I can't elaborate, but that pic had me asking the same thing :) I'm surprised more people didn't chime in.
 
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