You're listening to Topcast, this old pinballs online radio. For more information visit them anytime, www.marvin3m.com. Flash Topcast. Uh... Did I add on Topcast? I like to welcome an artist that worked for a number of coin-operated video and pinwall game companies. It is best known for his work at Capcom for the game's break shot, Big Bang Bar, and Kingpin. His gentleman is an excellent artist. He draws women very well, if you know what I mean, and has a very colorful history in the coin-op biz. So tonight I'd like to welcome Stan Fukuoka to Topcast. He's going to talk about his experiences at Capcom and his art experiences for some other coin-op companies. We're going to get Stan lying. Hello. Hey Stan, it's Joshua Clay. Can you hear me okay? I quite, yeah. You were obviously an artist by trade. How did you get involved with art and where did you go to school and how did you end up in the coin-op biz? I think I got my art ability from my father's side, although he didn't do art for a living. I went to school at the Cuber School of Graphic Arts in Dover, New Jersey. And my first professional job here was at a small company called Diamond Tarmakers. They're a small company in now's Illinois. They basically did knock off toys where they would search for the hot toy trend. Then we would do a knock off version of it, the generic version of it. I hope to write the co-tales of that. I was there a few years and then they closed the toy department. I think they're still up in the operation now. They're doing perforial, that kind of thing. From there I went to the only artworks. They were a small animation studio in downtown Chicago. They were doing commercials and short educational films. No experience animation. I was doing character designs and backgrounds, that kind of thing. I was there a few years. I just thought adding a paper, kind of like one of these. If you like the draw, we want to talk to you that kind of thing. I wasn't looking to change that, but I was interested with the ad. I arranged an interview and when I walked in there, all I saw was rooms and rooms filled with computers. Have you never sat in front of a computer? I thought this was going to be a big waste of time. I told them that. He was a system that they're looking for artists. They felt they could train artists to use computer easier than they could train a tech person to be an artist. So we sat and talked for a while. We seemed to like my stuff, but I was very apprehensive about that old deal. So I passed on it. What was the company that was interviewing, did they ever say? Well yeah, no. They were a company called Sunsoft. Well, actually they called back about a month later and asked if I would be willing to come in and talk to them again. I did and I figured, well, they knew I had no, I had zero experience and I met back my mind thought, well, this would be a great learning experience. Kind of a learning and a job. A huge learning curve still did. So I took it, but I was only there for a little less than two years and maybe even a year and they went under. I didn't have a track record of holding companies. Now when you say you had no computer experience, what medium did you like to work in? I was just traditional artist, you know, pen and ink, pencil, markers, paint, airbrush, that kind of thing. So you were good with the airbrush, huh? I take that back. Airbrush came much later. But yeah, I did very little finish start. I did some finish start at Diamond Tirmic, it did packaging, but everything that I've done mainly was insuffable and, you know, kind of behind the scenes kind of stuff. So like I said, I was there at Fence Off for less than a year and then when they pulled it from hedge hunters from incredible technologies, which was another game company for their north, you know, other than suburbs, they came by and they were kind of scouting to see if there was anyone there that they'd be willing to take on. So I joined them and was there for a couple of years, but while I was there, I was also doing freelance work in house freelance on weekends that another animation studio of Star Tunes was a studio of one by John McLeanahan who I met at Junior Networks. He left the opening at work at Star Zone Studio and he actually came to contract with Warner Brothers to do some TV animation in a tiny tune and testimony and all that and oh wow, that'd be kind of co-op, I grew up loving learning tunes. So he let me, you know, come in a weekend and I was doing a character and back on layout and it was like wow, this is kind of funny, but the timing was weird and that I really wanted to join them full time, but I felt some obligation to incredible technologies, but as it turns out, I got laid off by incredible technologies and, well, it's rehab their staff. So I guess it was meant to be so then I went to Star Tunes. Again only there for a couple of years, basically until the contract expired with Warner Brothers, they were constantly doing 30 shows or something like that. So it ranged from tiny tunes, the Animaniacs, Tezmian, it was a great experience and I was working with a great bunch of guys and girls and then. Now was that type of animation, was that traditional animation like you were drawing on cells or were you doing computer work then? No, I wasn't, this was a traditional animation house. I don't think computers are entered TV animation at this point yet. What year was this? This was, I'm ready for you to actually print out my resume from 89 to 91. Basically, we were the only studio in the States working for Warner Brothers. Usually the storyboards were done in LA and they would be sent out to Japan or China, Hong Kong, India. Because there was a lot of cheap and a work to do with that. But somehow John was able to get this kind of to these shows here. And when that ended, a lot of the guys went west to find jobs and animation. And then actually I was one of them that went out there too and looking around to different studios. And I didn't really find anything that I was sold on but I think I was sold on the prospect of having to move out there. If I want to spend animation then that's where the industry is. So I came back home, packed up everything and I remember one morning very early, a friend of mine in San Diego called me and he said, turn on CNN and that's when the, that's there I'm watching the big earthquake hit the Pasadena area which is the center of the animation industry. So, you just said I wasn't moving out the LA at that time. So a friend of mine who was, who worked with me at the incredible technologies, who was also laid off when I was, she got a job at the sake of America. They had opened up a small development studio, again in other suburbs. And she knew I was planning to move out to California and she helped me pack the estate. So I was not leaving for a few months at least so I wanted to come here. So I did which kind of got me back in the computers but not really. I was basically just using the computer for emails and solitary. So when you were doing work for incredible technologies, was your artwork there, was that computer based or traditional draw? I think we were using Amiga at the time which was a familiar to us. It was very user friendly, it had to be, I was able to use it. Yeah, these were all arcade games. Is this like the Ninja Clowns and the Arlington Horse Racing American Gladiator games? Yes, well I'll say. Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right. You know what, why don't you tell me what you know that could just verify that information? Well, I don't know a lot. I just know that while you were with incredible technologies, there was Ninja Clowns, Arlington Horse Racing American Gladiators, Hot Chat Tennis, and some bowling redemption game and some hockey game. But that's all I know. Yeah, the bowling thing was actually kind of fun. I never saw it but the job was we were doing screens for when you're actually in the bowling out of the overhead monitor. You know, would this play, you know, graphics and nations? So that's what you were doing for that. So you weren't doing any of the actual artwork for like the side of the games. You were doing all the stuff that was actually on the video screen. It wasn't the only one there but yeah, well, I did do a cabinet graphics for the Arlington Racing and Ninja Clowns, I believe. And were these games, were they good sellers for incredible technologies? Well, they laid off after staff so I'm assuming not. They didn't really take off until obviously they're golf games, you know, and so, and that was after me. So then you, so somehow you got hooked up with the, with the Sega team, right? Right. Again, it's off through Hat Hunters. Well, no, say I'm saying what that was to the niche. And I was there for, I want to say, less than a year. The problem with Sega at the time was that they had like five different platforms. So they were basically competing against themselves. So if you weren't on the platform that was going to eventually went out, then, you know, you were out. So that was the situation with us. Yeah, but didn't you do like Sega Aftershock? That was kind of a big game, right? No, no, I don't know where you heard that from. Oh, hang on a second. With that, I was just doing storyboards and conceptual characters and that kind of stuff. But I don't think that game was ever developed. It might have been developed after the fact. I never actually knew that that game was developed. Okay. So now how did you know you said you were going to take it only about a year? Right. So then when they closed shop, Sega of America out in San Francisco, they actually sent out some people here to interview to see who they thought would be interested in going out there to one of their studios out in California. Yeah, I actually were for a few of us got invite. But at the same time, I also got in contact with a headhunter. And so in addition to interviewing with all these Sega studios out in California, this time there was also putting me while I was out there to other studios in California in Vegas. And it was pretty exciting just to go out there and see what was out there and do that whole process. And you always kind of want to see where you think you stand among everybody else out there. So that was interesting. I remember it was out in Daven Barr, and I went back to my hotel and I called my headhunter and said, well, if you don't find anything interesting out there, there's actually an opening in Wellington Heights. I went to the Heights in Illinois because I was living there. I'm out in California and you say there's an opening in Washington. Well, that's around the Capcom. But at the time, you were still living in Illinois, right? So this was just a little all too convenient. And it was kind of weird. I seen, you know, it's kind of funny when I look back at my history. I really didn't have any direction. I just kind of like a leaf in the wind, but it just seemed that every stop I made was important to where I've gotten out because I was able to learn how to use computer. And in Capcom, you know, that was where I learned how to use the airbrush. It was a great airbrush guy that he vented and so I would do it just kind of like. And actually, when I started there, I wasn't actually hired for the pinball. I was insistent that I stay in the video site because here I am with all this, you know, rudimentary skills and computers. And I didn't want to give that up. So I was on the video site, which was basically just two artists and a programmer. And everyone else was on pinball. Well, now, now, when you, what did you interview with when you went to Capcom? I don't think I interviewed one person specifically. I just remember being in a room with like 67 people. High fund was there. Mark Ritchie was there. But I obviously didn't know who they were. It seemed like most of the questions were coming from who I later found out to be more of these sales and marketing people. Interesting. Now, when you would, when you showed up at Capcom, you know, you brought your, obviously, you must have brought your portfolio with you or they had senior portfolio. What type of stuff did you present to them to get to, you know, to get that gig? Well, a lot of that say good stuff. Like I said, you know, 90, 90% of my stuff was all conceptual stuff. So, you know, storyboards, character designs, that kind of stuff. A lot of marker stuff. So I didn't have any, except for the few packages I interviewed for a diamond, I didn't have any finished artwork. But I didn't feel that I needed it if I was going to be doing what I thought was I going to be doing with, you know, more of the same, you know, design work for their video games. I guess I had enough to show. So, what was the first project you were working on as soon as it was a video project, right? Yeah, well, well, the first and only end, the project never actually got very far for whatever reason I wasn't quite sure of the political dynamics there. It was a science fiction kind of a shoot-em-up game that the programmer there, the Japanese guy, didn't speak much English. Apparently, he made his name doing shooting games. So, that's what we were doing. So, this guy was doing all of the design work and a woman there, Akamori, she was the 3D computer person, and she was incredible. I would everyday with, you know, hand her like, you know, five or six drawings, or to render up. You know, the next day she'd knock on my door waiting for more. So, that was a pretty good site for me at Going On There, but then I got approached by Greg Kmiec and Rob Morrison actually asking, because there was only one game going on, and then the other designs were in development, so they were, they wanted to know if I have any interest in helping them develop their game. And I said, sure, why not? Actually, I was working on Rob's game first when I got pulled because Greg Kmiec got greenlit because it was a game that the first game in a line, I thought they were going to pursue this, you know, low cost, you know, simple or vegetable games. You're talking about what ultimately became Breakshot, right? Now, Breakshot, though, didn't start out as Breakshot. You had some sort of other conceptual design for that, right? Well, originally it was Python design Cloud 9. I don't know if he came up with a name, but the Python concept was, you know, the Greek adds playing cool planets kind of thing. So I thought it was interesting. My heart, you know, I was still deeply involved with the video thing, but there weren't any other artists available. He was, I'm not sure what he was looking at. I think he was looking at airborne at the time. So they needed some artwork for this game. I thought mainly just as placeholders. So I spent a lot of time on Cloud 9. And, you know, every week or every, you know, two weeks whenever there were meetings, you know, everyone would come by including Mike Strohl and Mark Rich and all the guys. You just get a review of the progress of the game and they all saw the artwork and, you know, okay, it's a go. It's a go. It's a go. It's a go. And then finally they had the, what, what we thought everyone thought was the final pre-meaning before, you know, everything was greenlit to go in the full production. And, I remember, you know, I had this really small office and it seemed like a company was crammed in there looking at the artwork. And, I don't know. It seems to be going fine when, yeah, I'm glad I don't remember names because I want to remember this guy's name. He was a salesman. He was in the back of the room and just kind of yells out the, what are truck drivers in Alabama going to know about Greek cats? I kind of looked at him like, wait a minute. We've been working on this theme for months and, and only now is someone come out with him like that. I mean, I thought I would have assumed that it all their market research and, you know, and all that. But that put a, you know, the brakes on the whole thing and it was like all of a sudden that grew legs. Okay, what do we do now? I remember a few of us, kind of brainstormed in the office room after work and it was kind of like, I don't know who said, you know, let's just do, you know, a pool, you know, a straight pool game and a bar. Okay. Well, you know, so you had to change everything then. You're the whole, I mean, all the artwork immediately changed. Yeah, yeah. And so the, and that artwork was from working on, you know, Cloud 9 for, I might be exaggerated. It seemed like months. Maybe it was, it was at least a good month to, to getting brake shut out and yeah, we're going in, you know, in the week. We're going to take a little break with our interview with Stan Foucaulta and we'll be right back after this message. This portion of Topcast is brought to you by Pin Game Journal covering the world of pinball is them online at www.pingamejournal.com. Deep in the forest of Eastern Canada, you will find something well, ground breaking and something that's very, very pinball, but something that's really, really small. Presenting classic Playfield reproductions. Two guys in their basement. We've got the passion, we've got the gear and we've got the quality. Doing our very best to remake classic and more modern pinball replacement parts. Classic Playfield reproductions. Playfields, back glasses, plastic sets. On the web at classicplayfields.com. Alright, we're back with Stan Foucaulta and his, uh, corner up experiences with Capcom and other companies. Now, what about the dot matrix animations? Did you have any involvement with any of that artwork? I didn't have any, I didn't do any of the actual work. No, they had, they had two or three people dedicated to that matrix. I would give my advice on a few things, but no, I didn't have any involvement with that. Now, were you, were you pretty, I mean, you know, you made this transition from video to pinball. Were you a video game or a pinball player either or at the time? Well, um, I enjoyed playing pinball. I'm terrible at it, but I enjoyed it. And for video games, um, I enjoyed going to our K-s playing video game. Again, I enjoyed it more by watching others play 52, but the higher levels look like, because I would never get there. But yeah, I'd know to say that I'm, I'm not a gamer at all. Now, when, um, the one thing that you're, you know, you did three, the artwork for three games in Capcom, with the break shot, big bang bar and, and kingpin. And the one thing that really stands out in all this is, is you're, you're drawing of the women. I mean, it's, I mean, it's some of the best female drawings of any artist of the era. Um, I mean, how did you get so good at that? Well, thank you for the color. Um, actually, um, prior to working there, I really hadn't drawn that many women. And it was kind of like, it was something in the back of my head like, I'm going to make a concert effort to get women in this game. And I figured the industry that I'm in with, you know, games and bars primarily that, that I thought would be a good focus. So it's all kind of like, so in the place for me and plus the fact that there were a lot of women there, you know, in the sales department and, you know, and all that. And, um, I don't know who I asked first. I think I might have asked Elizabeth Stroll. Um, she was in the credit department, um, if she wouldn't mind modeling. And when she said, sure, it was like, oh, well, you know, maybe I can ask them, you know, some more, you know, it was kind of weird. Everyone I asked was very enthusiastic about modeling. So I was just, it was all there. So you mean you had, you had no shortage of, of potential volunteers to use as subjects for your artwork. Right. Right. And when they, and when you say that they had that money, I mean, did they have to just, did you take like polaroids on them and draw from that? Or did they actually have to pose for you? Well, no, I wouldn't want them to actually pose for it because, you know, this was all done during the work day. And they had worked to do two. So actually pose would be two months. So yeah, a lot of it was the polaroids. Actually, um, the model for the tube dancer and Big Bang Barber, Karen Tobin, and actually the size video tape sheet. That up on a table was, you know, I, I tried to, you know, this kind of scenario for that's, you know, dancing and liquid and missing that. So yeah, not all the girls, you know, they brought clothes in and they were all, they were all into it, which was great. Uh, then, and none of these, none of these, uh, none of these women were actually professional models either, right? Now, what about, um, it did some of the, did some of your other male co-workers also end up in the games too? Yeah, for, um, well for, break shot, um, or Mesa, he was the production guy. He was one of the guys in the background and, um, he lanes dead and the other graphic artist. He was the machine gun and the foreground on, on the king country. Let's kind of interesting how you kind of worked everybody into the, into it. So now, at this time, when you were doing the art for Capcom, how much of it was computer and how much was traditional art? Well, for pinball, it was all traditional. And you were pretty comfortable, obviously, with that format, but was that blow on your, your dream of kind of getting the computer angle into it? Well, when I realized, um, the video game, at least from my end, wasn't going anywhere, um, it just seemed like we weren't getting past a certain point. Again, I, you know, I wasn't privy to all the politics that I could be going on. There, there must have been something going on because there was nothing going on on the video end. So, when I gravitated toward the pinball thing, you know, and I was spending more and more time with the pinball and, um, it didn't seem to matter. So, I just took it as well. The pinball seems to be, you know, needs me more. And if, you know, the video needed me, you know, they, they've not come to my door, but I never got that knock so... Now, how was your, um, working relationship with Python? Python was great. I really enjoyed, um, my work experience with them. We never really, um, worked together on anything. You know, like I said, it was his concept for Cloud 9. But, yeah, in that, um, I didn't really have any, you know, day-to-day, day-to-day working contact with them. But, no, I enjoyed being with, being with them a lot. Python got on one of the stickers, but his name wasn't Python? Right, right. Oh, okay. Yeah, right. Yeah, I managed to get him in, in a couple areas, and actually he was, um, kind of prominent in one of the early, um, early studies for the translate, but, um, that's big of, yeah, on the pencil stage. No, I thought, I thought, just his character and personality was, was perfect for the game, so, and since it appeared to me that he was known in the industry, I thought it'd be, you know, it would be a kick to get him in there. Now, um, what do you think of the Gene Cunningham angle where he redid the Big Bang bars, you know, and brought that game, you know, essentially to production? What is your opinion of that? Well, I really don't have it, I mean, other than that, I'm glad that, that game did finally see a full production run. I've always wondered, um, if this game ever, you know, if it did get a production run at Capcom, we actually be talking now, I don't know. I don't know if it would have taken on the life that it has, you know, if it, you know, if it did get that production run, because nothing that was shrouded in mystery and, you know, the hearsay and, and rumors and rumblings. So, who knows? Well, the latest rumors and rumblings is, and now Kingpin, which of course is a game that, that you also did work on. How far did you get along in the artwork for Kingpin? Kingpin was done. I mean, yeah, you know, it did see a, you know, Mattest run of it was shorter than Big Bang bar, a couple of, I'm not, you guys already know the numbers more than I do, but yeah, it didn't make it to final production for test games. So as far as you were concerned, the artwork was finished. Yeah. Now, Gene is considering remaking that too. Is that, you know, would you be glad to see that game come up too? Well, sure, you know, I mean, I don't know if it has a safe to Nash's Big Bang bar. I like the art package. I don't know as much. I haven't given it that much thought, but, yeah, you know, if people want it, if people want it, they can do it. That's great. Now, has Gene contacted you guys about any of any additional work needed for either of these two games? Well, we have talked, but it hasn't gone much beyond the talking stages. Right. Is it, is, you know, was he actually talking about hiring you guys for some work? I don't know. He was just more interested in just your kind of your words, your opinions. Well, yeah, I would say so. Yeah, it never got much beyond talking. He didn't need me for Big Bang bar in the game. I haven't seen it, but from what, I hear from everybody trying to have great. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's, I think it turned out unbelievable. I think he did a great job. He pulled out all the stops as we know to make that happen. You know, so, well, now, when, you know, when you, it's only about the final days of Capcom and how that whole thing kind of imploded, tell me about that. There's a capcom actually lasted almost a year. It was every day, you know, you're seeing potential buyers walk through this, you know, CTO, you're in the rumors, you know, we're having company meetings about, you know, everything. Everything is still, everything is still status quo. You know, whenever you get a meeting about everything is still status quo, obviously things aren't quite status quo. So, yeah, for the last year, everyone I'm sure was something NATO. Right. Right. So what, I mean, how did, how did they finally give you the notice that, you know, they were, they were done? Again, other people's recollections might be different than mine, but I'm thinking it happened in ways. Because I remember talking to you a few years back and he reminded me that he was like, come before me. I'm suing because his game was up, was done for mine. But yeah, it happened in ways. And when you, were you, I mean, were you okay with this or were you kind of, you know, were you bitter or were you just like, oh no. I'm bitter, obviously, you know, from the history of my career that I've outlaked to you, you know, I've, I ran into this quite a few times. So obviously, you know, you're never prepared for, you're never prepared for it, but, you know, the writing was on the wall, really, I guess. It was a shame because it was a great bunch of people there and the creative energy was really high and it was just, it was fun to go to work. I was, I would actually go there on weekends a lot. Big Ben Barb timeline that's pretty tight. I was still doing a little video at the time, so my, my time during the working week was a little divided, but I didn't want to get behind. I didn't want to let anyone down. So, you know, it's coming in a lot of weekends to catch up on that. Yeah, and everyone put in a lot of hours. You know, it was, it was just, you know, projects that, you know, people enjoyed working at. That's, that's rare. So, you know, the shame that, you know, the fact that nobody did. You, in your artwork on, you know, for Capcom or any of your artwork, did you ever bury anything in it that was, you know, maybe had some personal connection or had like a subplot or a sub story or something, you know, that was like below the surface that, you know, you were kind of almost obscuring in their artwork. Other than, you know, trying to get Python in there, you know, and well, for Kingston, I wanted, I went to one of the Japanese sales ladies there and asked her to write out my name in Japanese. I thought that'd be kind of cute. Mark Rich would feel like that idea, but I just, you know, what, you could do. But, and I also got all the guys' names in the Translite for Kingston. I think a lot of people out there got scared by the logo, but, you know, and actually, I'm the exact cabinet. I actually had the graphic of a speeding car with, with, and the driver was originally Mike Strohl and I had Rich in the back seat and, I'm forgetting names, but the whole team was either in that car or 20 to fair was one of the programmers. He was in the front cabinet by the coin drop. But Mike Strohl saw that and he, I'm assuming he knew that he was going to get let go, so he wanted to put your off there. He probably wanted it off, even if he was staying, I don't know. So did you end up taking him out? Yeah. And do you still have the original artwork with him in it? Yeah, I've never got beyond pipe pencils, but yeah, I have that. Now, you talked about you and how he was a great airbrush artist and you said that you picked up that talent at Capcom too? Right, right. So when you're doing airbrushing, I mean, how does that work compared to, you know, your, you know, basically your pencil or ink designs? Well, it's a lot more care-consuming. I'm, you know, to say that I'm an airbrush artist would probably be an insult to other airbrush artists, but I learned enough just by watching him, just to, you know, to like the Clifton of version of it. And, you know, the, the shortcuts and, but the, yeah, it took a long time. Mainly, mainly the breakdown of brushes every time, you know, I'm going through a color change. So, yeah, in that regard, it's a lot more time-consuming. That's probably why I had to come in a week after two, just to catch up because it was taking me a long and thin like you would take. So, what were they just using it? You know, you basically do a pencil drawing and they use the airbrush just to basically color it in? Well, from, from my airbrush work, I would actually paint first traditionally and then use the airbrush to soften it, you know, soften edges, you know, create the transitions that kind of stuff. So, I wouldn't call what I did airbrushing and airbrush painting. It was a painting using some airbrushing. So, and were, were those like a, like water-based acrylic ink type thing? I don't want to become an airbrush artist. Well, I only used that because that's what he was using. So, you know, like, you know, if I'm watching him and seeing how he's working, then I'm going to, you know, use a specific area on the client. And he would do entire, entire artworks using airbrushing? It seemed that way, yeah, because his friskity cutting was way more involved than mine was. Yeah, so, yeah, I think you might have to talk to him about it, but I would say 90% of his painting was airbrushed. So, now, after Capcom, then where did you go to? Well, after Capcom, I went to a promotion agency, Southern Marketing. I had some friends there, and the third marketing was one of the two agencies that did design and manufacturing up the heavy metal parts in the tunnel. So, yeah, I stepped right in there. That was, that was an, an easy, for two of this situation, I just kind of stepped right into that spot. And I was there for, um, almost six years. So, you, you, you've never come back full circle and come back into coin op, huh? No, you know, I, I'd love to, but, um, I don't know, uh, yeah, the aperture of me has a presented film. And I'm, and I'm happy where I'm at now. I'm not yet sending in the world. They kind of, they kind of fold it again, um, if you need that luck for companies, but, uh, I move on to another company doing the same thing, the same promotional stuff on the top. Oh, and that's pretty, pretty good lucrative job, huh? I enjoyed there, yes. Well, good. I'm glad you, you know, you've found success. Pardon? I'm glad that you've, you've found, you know, you've found something, you know, that, you know, you could do that. I've been very fortunate that, uh, I, I would fit in the most part. All my jobs, um, I've had a lot of fun and, and they were all learning experiences. So, um, yeah. Well, is there anything about your Capcom experience that, you know, I left out that, you know, any interesting stories, any, any good experiences? No, no crazy Python stories. No, you know, um, well, they used to always go out, um, you know, several nights a week. I went out a few times with them, but, um, I couldn't hang with those guys, so I quickly dropped out of that circle. Yeah, no, we didn't spend, uh, much social time together. It was just, then they are time to get at work. They were, they were driving a little too fast in the, in the, in the right lane or something. Well, it's probably a mid driving wheel too slow, so. No, you were probably driving normal. All right, Stan, is there anything else you want to add? Well, um, no, you know, um, I just say that, you know, I, I had to say that Capcom was the most fun I've had at a job, mainly because that was one of the, you know, the one place where I was able to, you know, finish start work. I always thought my career would be, I remember, you know, reading, going over to, you know, the art of giving me and all that, and, you know, you would, I would put pretty spaces and feel these beautiful background paintings and conceptual artwork. And I would always say, I was done known. I thought that would be my legacy. Well, no, no, no, you didn't get that. You didn't, your last name isn't unknown. That's for sure. So, yeah, I, I think the, the Big Bang bar really, really put you on the map. At least it did as far as I was concerned. You know, I, going to all these expos, you know, it's, it's very flattering humblings, just hearing people come up to me and, you know, it's kind of weird. It's like, you know, they don't know me, but they, and they know me through my art and then. And it's very gratifying. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, you did some, you know, some great work for Capcom. I mean, those, those three games were, you know, outstanding. I, you know, the Big Bang bar stuff in particular. I mean, I really like, I mean, I, I bought one of the Gene Cunningham ones. So, you know, maybe I'm, you know, slightly better eye for that game, maybe. Yeah, it's funny with, you know, with the cutting end games and everything. I remember when I was working at the Star Tunes, we would see a lot of the, you know, the, the cells and the layouts that we did it in this video, you know, being full of the Warner Brothers store. I remember, you know, we would go there and say, you know, wow, that's our work and we can't afford it. I just, I've read about these pin logs and just like, yeah. So, I'm glad somebody's enjoying it. So, when you were doing that cell animation, I mean, would you watch the cartoons on Saturday and say, yep, yep, there I am. Yeah. Yeah. And it was pretty, it was pretty neat. Every, every one we've worked with him in years, but every season that we worked on, we always had a show, you know, nominated for an Emmy. So, that was, that was a big act, you know, it might be, so sorry, but I thought the work that we did really stood out and through no effort of mine, we had a lot of great animated there. So, I thought our stuff was really strong. Well, I mean, Animating Acts, I mean, that was a really, I mean, that was quite the animated show at the time. Yeah, yeah, that was huge. Yeah, I mean, it was like a precursor for a lot of stuff that, you know, that, you know, it laid the groundwork for a lot of the stuff that's, you know, currently out now. You know, you know, kind of that edgy, you know, that, you know, kind of that edgy cartoon style. Yeah, that's something to be really proud of. How much, no, how much on Animating Acts, how much show, how much work did you actually do that actually got broadcasted? Well, I'm, I'm there on every show, because like I said, I did the all the character and back on layouts. So, they say, you know, storyboards were done in LA, and then they were to be sent to us, and then I would get it, and I would set up every scene with a background artist or, you know, to say I was a character artist, like, layout guy might be stretching it. You know, I put the characters in there, but the animators, they were so good that, you know, they kind of ran it around, around so. Well, cool. That's, that was one thing where I was involved in all this stuff. Well, cool, Stan. Thanks a lot. I really do appreciate your time. Oh, I appreciate your time, Mom. All right, I'd like to thank Stan Fukuoka for coming and talking to us tonight on Topcast. Really do appreciate his time, and I hope to see him working pinball again, because you really is an excellent artist. Thank you again, Stan, and thank you all for coming and listening to Topcast tonight.