https://www.pinballnews.com/site/2022/02/22/barry-oursler-dies/

Pinball designer Barry Oursler has died.

Barry had recently started working for American Pinball as a game designer, having previously been employed at Deeproot Pinball.

He is understood to have been undergoing treatment for cancer and died yesterday as a result of complications.

Barry had a long and illustrious career designing pinballs for Williams, starting in 1978 with his first game, Phoenix and ending in 1996 with Junkyard. In-between he designed many landmark titles including Gorgar, the first speaking game, Space Shuttle – widely credited with saving the pinball business in the mid-’80s – as well as the Comet-Cyclone-Hurricane trilogy based on rides at the Riverview amusement park in Chicago, and Pinbot which also went on to spawn two sequels.

Barry quickly developed a reputation for speed and flexibility in his work. He could rapidly create game designs, always had numerous design ideas in his head, and often collaborated with other designers and artists to help complete their projects, most notably working with Python Anghelo on titles such as Jokerz!, Bad Cats and Popeye Saves The Earth.

After leaving Williams, Barry moved to Betson as a Purchasing Manager before spending time working remotely on game designs at Heighway Pinball. He came to the UK to visit the factory in 2014 and be the special guest at the UK Pinball Party where he was inducted into the UK Pinball Group Hall of Fame.

It was also in 2014 that Barry made an appeal to the pinball community for help paying medical bills. He had been diagnosed with bone cancer in February 2013, while his wife, Donna, was suffering from kidney failure. His initial target of $20,000 was quickly achieved, with the total of the donations reaching $33,718 by the end of the fundraiser.

When Deeproot Pinball began their operation in San Antonio, Barry was one of the four game designers at the company alongside John Popadiuk, Dennis Nordman and Jon Norris.

He remained there until the company ceased operations at the end of 2021, before taking up his recent position working on game designs at American Pinball.

We are expecting an official announcement with more details from American Pinball shortly and will bring that to you as soon as we have it.