From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rebecca Ann Heineman is an American
video game designer and
programmer. Heineman was a founding member of video game companies
Interplay Productions, Logicware, Contraband Entertainment, and Olde Sküül. She has been
chief executive officer for Olde Sküül since 2013.
Rebecca Ann Heineman (born William Salvador Heineman)
[1] was born and raised in
Whittier, California.
[2] When she was young, she could not afford to purchase games for her
Atari 2600, so she taught herself how to copy cartridges and built herself a sizable pirated video game collection. Eventually, she became discontented with just copying games and
reverse-engineered the console's code to understand how the games were made.
[3] In 1980, Heineman and a friend traveled to
Los Angeles to compete in a regional branch of a national
Space Invaders championship. Although she did not expect to fall under the top 100 contestants, she won the competition. Later that year, she also won the championship in
New York. Heineman is hence considered to be the first national video game tournament champion.
[3]
After she won the tournament, Heineman was offered a writing job for monthly magazine
Electronic Games and a consultancy job for a book called
How to Master Video Games. During this time, she mentioned to one magazine publisher that she had reverse-engineered Atari 2600 code, and the publisher arranged a meeting between Heineman and the owners of game publisher
Avalon Hill. As she met with them, she was hired as a
programmer instantaneously. Heineman, aged 16 at the time, moved across the U.S. for her new job, canceling her plans to acquire a
high school diploma. At Avalon Hill, Heineman created a manual for the company's programming team, the studio's
game engine, and the base code for several software projects, including her own first game,
London Blitz, before leaving the company.
[3]
Heineman returned to California to work for another developer, Boone Corporation. For Boone, she programmed the games
Chuck Norris Superkicks and
Robin Hood, acquiring knowledge of programming for
Commodore 64,
Apple II,
VIC-20 and
IBM PCs, of video game hardware, as well as
video game design. Boone ceased operations in 1983, so Heineman got together with
Brian Fargo, Jay Patel and Troy Worrell, and the four founded
Interplay Productions (later known as Interplay Entertainment). Heineman acted as lead programmer for the company, working on
Wasteland,
The Bard's Tale,
Out of This World, and the
Mac OS and
3DO ports of
Wolfenstein 3D.
[3]
Heineman went on to design
The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate,
Dragon Wars,
Tass Times in Tonetown,
Borrowed Time,
Mindshadow and
The Tracer Sanction, among others, for Interplay. As the company grew to more than 500 employees, Heineman, wishing to return to her small-team roots, left the company in 1995 and co-founded Logicware, where she acted as
chief technology officer and lead programmer. Aside from original games, Heineman oversaw the company's porting activities, which included
Out of This World,
Shattered Steel,
Jazz Jackrabbit 2 and a canceled Mac OS port of
Half-Life.
[3]
In 1999, Heineman founded Contraband Entertainment, operating as its
chief executive officer. The company developed several original games alongside ports to various platforms for other developers. Projects led by Heineman include
Myth III: The Wolf Age and
Activision Anthology, and Mac OS ports for
Aliens vs. Predator,
Baldur's Gate II and
Heroes of Might and Magic IV. During this time, she also provided consultancy work directly for other companies: She acted as "Senior Engineer III" for
Electronic Arts, upgraded engine code for
Barking Lizards Technologies and
Ubisoft, optimized code for
Sensory Sweep Studios, acted as senior software architect for
Bloomberg L.P. and
Amazon, provided training on
Xbox 360 development for
Microsoft's development studios, and worked on the
kernel code for the
PlayStation Portable and
PlayStation 4 at
Sony. During her tenure at Amazon, Heineman was, in addition to her technological role, also the "Transgender Chair" of Amazon's
LGBTQ+ group, known as Glamazon.
[3]
Contraband was wound down in 2013, and Heineman founded a new company, Olde Sküül, together with
Jennell Jaquays, Maurine Starkey, and Susan Manley. At Olde Sküül, Heineman acts as CEO.
[3]
Around 2003, Heineman was diagnosed with
gender dysphoria and began
transitioning to live as a woman.
[1][4] She formally changed her given name to Rebecca Ann.
[1][5] Since the transition, Heineman has been living as a
lesbian.
[1] She has five children and is married to
Jennell Jaquays.
[1][6] Heineman resides in
El Cerrito, California, where her company Olde Sküül is located.
[3][7]
Heineman has been part of the
advisory board of the
Video Game History Museum since 2011, and is part of the
board of directors of LGBTQ+ organization
GLAAD.
[3]
Heineman is recognized as the first national video game tournament champion for winning the 1980 National Space Invaders Championship.
[3] Sailor Ranko, a
Sailor Moon-based
fanfiction comic by Heineman based on an earlier work written by Duncan Zillman, has won multiple awards. She also tried to qualify for the Fortnite World Cup.
[8][3] In 2017, she became an inductee for the
International Video Game Hall of Fame.
[3]
- Robin Hood (1983, VIC-20 port)[9]
- Chuck Norris Superkicks (1984, C64/VIC-20 ports)[9]
- The Bard's Tale (1985)
- Borrowed Time (1985)
- Racing Destruction Set (1986, Atari 8-bit family port)
- Tass Times in Tonetown (1986)
- The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate (1988)
- Neuromancer (1988)
- Crystal Quest (1989, Apple IIgs port)
- Dragon Wars (1989)
- Track Meet (1991)
- RPM Racing (1991)
- Another World (1992, SNES port)
- Rescue Rover (1993, Apple IIgs port)
- Interplay's 10 Year Anthology: Classic Collection (1993)
- Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness (1994, Apple IIgs port)
- Wolfenstein 3D (1995, Mac/3DO ports)
- Kingdom: The Far Reaches (1995)
- Killing Time (1996)
- Doom (1996, 3DO port)
- Defiance (1997)
- Tempest 2000 (1998, Mac port)
- Remington Top Shot: Interactive Target Shooting (1998)
- Redneck Rampage (1999, Mac port)
- Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (1999, Mac port)
- Galactic Patrol (1999, Mac port)
- Bugdom (1999)
- Myth III: The Wolf Age (2001)
- Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2001, Mac port)
- Nanosaur Extreme (2002)
- Icewind Dale (2002, Mac port)
- Hexen II (2002, Mac port)
- Activision Anthology (2002)
- Medal of Honor: Rising Sun (2003)
- Pitfall: The Lost Expedition (2004)
- Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault (2004)
- GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (2004)
- Medal of Honor: European Assault (2005)
- Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (2007)
- Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007)
- Chip's Challenge (2015, Windows re-release)
- ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f Barton, Matt (December 27, 2010). "The Burger Speaks: An Interview With An Archmage, Page 1 of 7". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on February 4, 2019. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
- ^ "Rebecca_Heineman". Olde Sküül. Archived from the original on February 3, 2021. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
- ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k l Marie, Meagan (December 4, 2018). Women in Gaming: 100 Professionals of Play. Dorling Kindersley. pp. 32–33. ISBN 9780241395066.
- ^ Heineman, Rebecca (March 29, 2005). "A new day in a new life". LiveJournal. Archived from the original on August 18, 2019. Retrieved February 16, 2019.
- ^ Barton, Matt (February 22, 2008). Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games. CRC Press. p. 197. ISBN 9781439865248.
- ^ Ennis, Dawn (April 1, 2015). "This Year's Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming Who's Who". Advocate. Archived from the original on November 16, 2018. Retrieved February 16, 2019.
- ^ "This is Burger Becky?". Burger Becky. Archived from the original on February 16, 2019. Retrieved February 16, 2019.
- ^ Rebecca, Heineman. "The people who bring you Sailor Ranko". Sailor Ranko. Archived from the original on November 21, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to:a b Drury, Paul (May 2019). "In the chair with... Rebecca Heineman". Retro Gamer. No. 192. Future plc. p. 92.
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