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Ode to Berto
Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2024 9:29 pm
by Jason Petho
It is with great sadness that I am informing you that Robert "Berto" Osterlund has passed away this morning. As the programmer, Berto has been pivotal in the growth of the Campaign Series capabilities and making the Campaign Series games what they are today. Berto and his exceptional expertise will be sorely missed. Our team offers our condolences to his family.

Re: Ode to Berto
Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2024 9:32 pm
by Nikel
Sorry to read the bad news.
I met him in Ageod forum, he was creating mods for AACW.
RIP Berto

Re: Ode to Berto
Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2024 9:41 pm
by Ronzy
Jason Petho wrote: Sat Feb 24, 2024 9:29 pm
It is with great sadness that I am informing you that Robert "Berto" Osterlund has passed away this morning. As the programmer, Berto has been pivotal in the growth of the Campaign Series capabilities and making the Campaign Series games what they are today. Berto and his exceptional expertise will be sorely missed. Our team offers our condolences to his family.
Sad to hear. I am sure he was a valued member to the team behind this game (I have seen his name/moniker in many of the older posts regarding the development of the CS games). My sympathies to the CS game development/programming team.

Re: Ode to Berto
Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2024 11:25 pm
by Bo Rearguard
For many years Berto graciously hosted my graphic mod for Gary Grigsby's ACW game "War between the States". Sorry to hear of his passing,

Re: Ode to Berto
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2024 3:45 am
by Rosseau
That is terrible news. So sorry to hear it.
- Mike
Re: Ode to Berto
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2024 6:29 am
by Crossroads
We've lost a gem with Berto, not only a great programmer, but a board and computer wargamer and a military history buff as well. His great contribution was to become fluent in most if not all Tiller engines, both at Campaign Series Legion for the Matrix owned Tiller code branch, as well as for the other engines Wargame Design Studio took over from John Tiller Software.
He shone in not only maintaining and adding new features to existing codebase, but he also designed and coded a full Lua based Event Engine to Campaign Series side of things. I am not quite aware of all things with our WDS colleagues, I hope he had the time to implement it there, too. It is quite something, and all about his vision as how a modern game AI should run.
All that, and a top guy with a great sense of humour.
Rest in peace, Berto.
Re: Ode to Berto
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2024 6:14 pm
by Big Ivan
Yes berto was a great member of the CS Development Team and the best game coder I have ever known. All of us there will miss him greatly!
RIP berto and thank you for making so many dreams come true with the Campaign Series games!
Re: Ode to Berto
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2024 10:40 pm
by benpark
That's sad news. What a talented, smart, and nice guy he was.
Re: Ode to Berto
Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2024 5:08 am
by zweibelen
So sorry to hear that he passed. I've enjoyed his work for years. This is my first post ever on the Matrix forum, which I hope illustrates how much fun he's given me over the years. Very sad. I swear he just posted a few days ago. RIP.
Re: Ode to Berto
Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2024 11:09 am
by Zovs
My condolences to his family and friends.
I was shocked to read this, I did not think he was that old.
Will the CS continue on since his passing?
I might be wrong but I thought he was one of the main contributors to it.
Re: Ode to Berto
Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2024 11:35 pm
by carll11
I offer my condolences to family and friends as well............. Berto was well known among us and gave of himself that these communities would thrive, he, like John T., helped make comp. gaming what it is today...........He wont be forgotten as his work, right here for example, will live on....RIP.
Re: Ode to Berto
Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2024 10:19 pm
by randy44
shocked and saddened. my condolences to his family and friends.
Re: Ode to Berto
Posted: Thu Feb 29, 2024 5:03 am
by alwaysdime
Damn that sucks. I feel for his family and friends. Do we know what happened? Heart attack? Shooting? Car accident?
Re: Ode to Berto
Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2024 1:40 am
by Big Ivan
alwaysdime wrote: Thu Feb 29, 2024 5:03 am
Damn that sucks. I feel for his family and friends. Do we know what happened? Heart attack? Shooting? Car accident?
He lost his battle to cancer. He had been fighting it for a while.
Re: Ode to Berto
Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2024 11:18 am
by parmenio
Big Ivan wrote: Fri Mar 01, 2024 1:40 am
He lost his battle to cancer. He had been fighting it for a while.
Yes and he kept working till the end.
Unfortunately, I never had the chance to meet him in person.
Re: Ode to Berto
Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2024 2:29 pm
by Big Ivan
parmenio wrote: Fri Mar 01, 2024 11:18 am
Big Ivan wrote: Fri Mar 01, 2024 1:40 am
He lost his battle to cancer. He had been fighting it for a while.
Yes and he kept working till the end.
Unfortunately, I never had the chance to meet him in person.
Yes, I never had a chance to meet him either and he did keep working until the end.
I worked closely with him and Jason Petho on the Campaign Series for some time. Berto will be truly missed by a lot of folks!!
Thanks Andy and take care!!
Re: Ode to Berto
Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2024 10:48 pm
by ArmyEsq
This is terribly sad to hear. May he rest in peace.
Re: Ode to Berto
Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2024 8:30 pm
by Phoenix100
Terrible news. Really saddened by it.