I am still working on getting caught up on pinball- and game-related content. There will be new developments to post about and I still have a couple of bar/arcade visit posts to add from late 2021.
In the meantime though, I thought I would post a few pictures from my attendance at Zoo Lights on its closing day, January 9. This was my first time going and though in a way I wanted to attend much earlier in the season, I am grateful that I was able to attend at the very end and perhaps it worked out for the best as the crowds were relatively light (pun intended).
Many of us in the Houston area classic arcade and pinball community are mourning the passing of Ken Graham, who left us on the last day of 2021 after losing a bravely fought battle with cancer. Ken was one of the owners at The Game Preserve and while I was not by any means a close friend or even a close acquaintance of his, I did appreciate his handiwork as an owner and game technician at The Game Preserve over the last few years. I, like many others in the Houston area classic arcade and pinball community, will miss his presence and personality.
Perhaps Ken’s main claim to fame is as one of the programmers on the 1984 arcade game Mystic Marathon. Unfortunately, Mystic Marathon was figuratively buried in the dust cloud that immediately followed the 1983 crash of the video game scene and didn’t really have a fair chance to catch on. The Game Preserve’s location in The Woodlands does have a Mystic Marathon machine for those who want to check it out.
For those who desire further reading, I have linked below to an interview by Todd Friedman of Old School Gamer Magazine where he asks Ken some interesting questions. This was published in the 2020 June, with the interview likely having taken place earlier in the year.
