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Rebecca Ann Heineman is an American video game designer and programmer. She is a long-time veteran of the video game industry. Heineman was a founding member of video game companies Interplay Productions, Logicware, Contraband Entertainment, and Olde Sküül. She has been acting as chief executive officer for Olde Sküül since 2013.

Early life

Rebecca Ann Heineman is an American video game designer and programmer who was raised in Whittier, California. When she was young, she could not afford to purchase games for her Atari 2600, so she taught herself how to copy cartridges and ended up building herself a sizable pirated video game collection. Eventually, she became discontent with just copying games and reverse-engineered the console's code to understand how the games were made. She is now considered a long-time veteran of the video game industry and became a founding member of the video game company Interplay productions in 2013.

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 now considered to be the first national video game tournament champion.

Career

Heineman has always had a passion for coding and game design. She has deep roots in the video game industry. Her first achievement dates back to 1980. She won the National Space Invaders contest. Her job consisted of porting games such as London Blitz to the Atari 2600. She was 14 years old at the time and hd knowledge beyond her years when it came to the video game industry. She is best known for her tenure at Interplay Productions. She developed Fargo along with three other developers in 1983. Rebecca also developed Tass Times in Tonetown in 1986. It was an innovative point-and click adventure game. She also had a part in Interplay. It was a roleplaying computer game that was also known as the Bards Tale.

Rebecca also had a role in designing Dragon Wars in 1989. She was slowly building up her reputation of her excellent conversion skills of games to programs such as the Apple IIGS, Macintosh and many others. She has remained a key figure in the industry, unlike others who have come before her in the 80's. Her most recent position is senior engine programmer at Ubisoft, Toronto. She has also been a member of Microsoft's Kinect team.

Personal life

During her time at Interplay, Heineman would often go out to a nearby burger shop and buy a bag full of 29-cent hamburgers, spending the rest of the day at the company eating those burgers and storing the remains on her desk. This earned her the nickname "Burger", and she was frequently called "Burger Bill" (nowadays "Burger Becky"). Heinemann also hid burgers inside the games she programmed as Easter eggs as a result.

Around 2003, Heineman was diagnosed with gender dysphoria and began transitioning to a woman. She formally changed her given name from William Salvador ("Bill") to Rebecca Ann. Since the transition, Heineman has been living as a lesbian. She has five children and is married to Jennell Jaquays. Heineman resides in El Cerrito, California, where her company Olde Sküül is located.

Board service

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.

Accolades

Heineman is recognized as the first national video game tournament champion for winning the 1980 National Space Invaders Championship. Sailor Ranko, a Sailor Moon-based fanfiction created by Heineman, has won multiple awards. In 2017, she became an inductee for the International Video Game Hall of Fame.

Games

• The Bard's Tale (1985)
• Borrowed Time (1985)
• 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)

References

1. ^ Barton, Matt (December 27, 2010). "The Burger Speaks: An Interview With An Archmage, Page 1 of 7". Gamasutra.
2. , Marie, Meagan (December 4, 2018). Women in Gaming: 100 Professionals of Play. Dorling Kindersley. pp. 32–33. ISBN 9780241395066.
3. "Gamasutra - The Burger Speaks: An Interview With An Archmage". www.gamasutra.com. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
4. ^ Marie, Meagan (December 4, 2018). Women in Gaming: 100 Professionals of Play. Dorling Kindersley. pp. 32–33. ISBN 9780241395066.
5. Kushner, David (April 24, 2003). Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture. Random House. p. 117. ISBN 978-0812972153.
6. Heineman, Rebecca (March 29, 2005). "A new day in a new life". LiveJournal.
7. Barton, Matt (February 22, 2008). Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games. CRC Press. p. 197. ISBN 9781439865248.
8. Ennis, Dawn (April 1, 2015). "This Year's Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming Who's Who". Advocate.
9. "This is Burger Becky?". Burger Becky.

External links

• Official website
• Stilphen, Scott. "...Rebecca Heineman". DP Interviews. Team DP. Retrieved March 22, 2019.
• https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/134614/the_burger_speaks_an_interview_.php?print=1
• http://www.digitpress.com/library/interviews/interview_rebecca_heineman.htm
• BARTON, MATT. HONORING THE CODE with Great Game Designers. CRC PRESS, 2017.

• Interplay Entertainment people
• LGBT people from California
• Living people
• Microsoft people
• People from Whittier, California
• Transgender and transsexual computer programmers
• Transgender and transsexual women
• Women video game programmers
• 1963 births