Rebecca Ann Heineman is an American
video game designer
Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdiscipline ...
and
programmer. Heineman was a founding member of video game companies
Interplay Productions
Interplay Entertainment Corp. is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Los Angeles. The company was founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by developers Brian Fargo, Jay Patel, Troy Worrell, and Rebecca ...
, Logicware, Contraband Entertainment, and Olde Sküül. She has been
chief executive officer
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...
for Olde Sküül since 2013.
Early life
Rebecca Ann Heineman (born William Salvador Heineman)
was born and raised in
Whittier, California
Whittier () is a city in Southern California in Los Angeles County, part of the Gateway Cities. The city had 87,306 residents as of the 2020 United States census, an increase of 1,975 from the 2010 census figure. Whittier was incorporated in ...
. When she was young, she could not afford to purchase games for her
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocesso ...
, 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
Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompli ...
the console's code to understand how the games were made.
In 1980, Heineman and a friend traveled to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
to compete in a regional branch of a national ''
Space Invaders
is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and licensed to the Midway division of Bally for overseas distribution. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed shooter an ...
'' 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.
Career
After she won the tournament, Heineman was offered a writing job for monthly magazine ''
Electronic Games
An electronic game is a game that uses electronics to create an interactive system with which a player can play. Video games are the most common form today, and for this reason the two terms are often used interchangeably. There are other common ...
'' 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
Avalon Hill Games Inc. is a game company that publishes wargames and strategic board games. It has also published miniature wargaming rules, role-playing games and sports simulations. It is a subsidiary of Hasbro, and operates under the company ...
. 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.
Heineman returned to California to work for another developer, Boone Corporation. For Boone, she programmed the games ''
Chuck Norris Superkicks'' and ''
Robin Hood
Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is dep ...
'', acquiring knowledge of programming for
Commodore 64,
Apple II,
VIC-20
The VIC-20 (known as the VC-20 in Germany and the VIC-1001 in Japan) is an 8-bit home computer that was sold by Commodore Business Machines. The VIC-20 was announced in 1980, roughly three years after Commodore's first personal computer, the ...
and
IBM PCs, of video game hardware, as well as
video game design
Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdiscipline ...
. Boone ceased operations in 1983, so Heineman got together with
Brian Fargo
Frank Brian Fargo (born December 15, 1962) is an American video game designer, producer, programmer and executive, and founder of Interplay Entertainment, inXile Entertainment and Robot Cache.
Biography
Early life
A descendant of the family ...
, Jay Patel and Troy Worrell, and the four founded
Interplay Productions
Interplay Entertainment Corp. is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Los Angeles. The company was founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by developers Brian Fargo, Jay Patel, Troy Worrell, and Rebecca ...
(later known as Interplay Entertainment). Heineman acted as lead programmer for the company, working on ''
Wasteland
Wasteland or waste land may refer to:
* Desert or barren area
* an uncultivated area of land, whether wooded or not, whether common land or not
Art, entertainment, and media Comics
* ''Wasteland'' (DC Comics), 1987–1989 anthology-style horror/ ...
'', ''
The Bard's Tale
''The Bard's Tale'' is a fantasy role-playing video game franchise created by Michael Cranford and developed by Brian Fargo's Interplay Productions (1985–1992) and inXile Entertainment (2004–present).
The initial title of the series was '' ...
'', ''
Out of This World'', and the
Mac OS
Two major famlies of Mac operating systems were developed by Apple Inc.
In 1984, Apple debuted the operating system that is now known as the "Classic" Mac OS with its release of the original Macintosh System Software. The system, rebranded "M ...
and
3DO ports of ''
Wolfenstein 3D
''Wolfenstein 3D'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Apogee Software and FormGen. Originally released on May 5, 1992, for DOS, it was inspired by the 1981 Muse Software video game '' Castle Wolfe ...
''.
Heineman went on to design ''
The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate'', ''
Dragon Wars'', ''
Tass Times in Tonetown
''Tass Times in Tonetown'' is an adventure game published by Activision in 1986. It was designed by Michael Berlyn and Muffy McClung Berlyn and programmed by Rebecca Heineman of Interplay (credited as Bill Heineman) in cooperation with Brainw ...
'', ''
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
''Shattered Steel'' is a Mecha, mech Vehicle simulation game, simulation game released in 1996 by BioWare for MS-DOS, and later ported to Mac OS by now-defunct Logicware. It is notable for the deformable terrain effects, and for being BioWare's ...
'', ''
Jazz Jackrabbit 2'' and a canceled Mac OS port of ''
Half-Life
Half-life (symbol ) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable at ...
''.
In 1999, Heineman founded Contraband Entertainment, operating as its
chief executive officer
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...
. 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
''Activision Anthology'' is a compilation of most of the Atari 2600 games by Activision for various game systems. It also includes games that were originally released by Absolute Entertainment and Imagic, as well as various homebrew games. The ...
'', and Mac OS ports for ''
Aliens vs. Predator
''Alien vs. Predator'' (also known as ''Aliens versus Predator'' and ''AVP'') is a science-fiction action horror
media franchise created by comic book writers Randy Stradley and Chris Warner. The series is a crossover between, and part of, th ...
'', ''
Baldur's Gate II'' and ''
Heroes of Might and Magic IV
''Heroes of Might and Magic IV'' is a turn-based strategy game developed by Gus Smedstad through New World Computing and published by the 3DO Company for Microsoft Windows-based personal computers in 2002. A Macintosh port was subsequentl ...
''. During this time, she also provided consultancy work directly for other companies: She acted as "Senior Engineer III" for
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...
, upgraded engine code for
Barking Lizards Technologies
Barking Lizards Technologies was an American video game developer that develops for mobile phones, PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, Wii and personal computer. Founded in 2001, Barking Lizards Technologies i ...
and
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry'', ...
, optimized code for
Sensory Sweep Studios
Sensory Sweep Studios was an American developer of video games. The studio was located in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Founded in 2003 by Dave Rushton and ex- Saffire employees, Sensory Sweep was initially a handheld studio, developing games for the Gam ...
, acted as senior software architect for
Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg L.P. is a privately held financial, software, data, and media company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was co-founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1981, with Thomas Secunda, Duncan MacMillan, Charles Zegar, and a 1 ...
and
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...
, provided training on
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...
development for
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
's development studios, and worked on the
kernel
Kernel may refer to:
Computing
* Kernel (operating system), the central component of most operating systems
* Kernel (image processing), a matrix used for image convolution
* Compute kernel, in GPGPU programming
* Kernel method, in machine learn ...
code for the
PlayStation Portable and
PlayStation 4 at
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...
. During her tenure at Amazon, Heineman was, in addition to her technological role, also the "Transgender Chair" of Amazon's
LGBTQ+
' is an Acronym, initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term for Sexuality and gende ...
group, known as Glamazon.
Contraband was wound down in 2013, and Heineman founded a new company, Olde Sküül, together with
Jennell Jaquays
Jennell Jaquays (born Paul Jaquays, October 14, 1956) is an American game designer, video game artist, and illustrator of tabletop role-playing games (RPGs). Her notable works include the '' Dungeons & Dragons'' modules '' Dark Tower'' and '' Ca ...
, Maurine Starkey, and Susan Manley. At Olde Sküül, Heineman acts as CEO.
Personal life
Around 2003, Heineman was diagnosed with
gender dysphoria and began
transitioning to live as a woman.
She formally changed her given name to Rebecca Ann.
Since the transition, Heineman has been living as a
lesbian.
She has five children and is married to
Jennell Jaquays
Jennell Jaquays (born Paul Jaquays, October 14, 1956) is an American game designer, video game artist, and illustrator of tabletop role-playing games (RPGs). Her notable works include the '' Dungeons & Dragons'' modules '' Dark Tower'' and '' Ca ...
.
Heineman resides in
El Cerrito, California
El Cerrito ( Spanish for "The Little Hill") is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, and forms part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It has a population of 25,962 according to the 2020 census. El Cerrito was founded by refugee ...
, 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
Fan fiction or fanfiction (also abbreviated to fan fic, fanfic, fic or FF) is fictional writing written in an amateur capacity by fans, unauthorized by, but based on an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted characters, setti ...
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.
In 2017, she became an inductee for the
International Video Game Hall of Fame.
Games
* ''
The Bard's Tale
''The Bard's Tale'' is a fantasy role-playing video game franchise created by Michael Cranford and developed by Brian Fargo's Interplay Productions (1985–1992) and inXile Entertainment (2004–present).
The initial title of the series was '' ...
'' (1985)
* ''
Borrowed Time'' (1985)
* ''
Racing Destruction Set
''Racing Destruction Set'' is a racing video game published in 1985 for the Commodore 64 by Electronic Arts. It was advertised as being Commodore 128 compatible. A version for the Atari 8-bit family, programmed by Rebecca Heineman of Interplay, ...
'' (1986,
Atari 8-bit family port)
* ''
Tass Times in Tonetown
''Tass Times in Tonetown'' is an adventure game published by Activision in 1986. It was designed by Michael Berlyn and Muffy McClung Berlyn and programmed by Rebecca Heineman of Interplay (credited as Bill Heineman) in cooperation with Brainw ...
'' (1986)
* ''
The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate'' (1988)
* ''
Neuromancer
''Neuromancer'' is a 1984 science fiction novel by American-Canadian writer William Gibson. Considered one of the earliest and best-known works in the cyberpunk genre, it is the only novel to win the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and ...
'' (1988)
* ''
Crystal Quest
''Crystal Quest'' is an action game written by Patrick Buckland for the Macintosh and published by Casady & Greene in 1987. It was ported to the Apple IIGS in 1989 by Rebecca Heineman. Ports were also made to the Amiga, Game Boy, iOS, and Pal ...
'' (1989, Apple IIgs port)
* ''
Dragon Wars'' (1989)
* ''
Track Meet'' (1991)
* ''
RPM Racing
''RPM Racing'' (short for ''Radical Psycho Machine Racing'') is a Super Nintendo Entertainment System racing game developed by Silicon & Synapse (now known as Blizzard Entertainment) and published by Interplay Productions.
''RPM'' was a succes ...
'' (1991)
* ''
Another World'' (1992, SNES port)
* ''
Rescue Rover
''Rescue Rover'' is a puzzle video game that was developed by id Software and published by Softdisk in 1991. The game was distributed as shareware, with the first 10 levels making up the shareware version, and another 20 levels being present in the ...
'' (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
''Wolfenstein 3D'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Apogee Software and FormGen. Originally released on May 5, 1992, for DOS, it was inspired by the 1981 Muse Software video game '' Castle Wolfe ...
'' (1995, Mac/3DO ports)
* ''
Kingdom: The Far Reaches'' (1995)
* ''
Killing Time'' (1996)
* ''
Doom
Doom is another name for damnation.
Doom may also refer to:
People
* Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed
* Daniel Doom (born 1934), Belgian cyclist
* Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitcher
* ...
'' (1996, 3DO port)
* ''Defiance'' (1997)
* ''
Tempest 2000
is a tube shooter video game originally developed by Llamasoft and published by Atari Corporation for the Atari Jaguar in North America on 13 April, 1994. It was released in Europe on 27 June and in Japan on 15 December of the same year, with ...
'' (1998, Mac port)
* ''Remington Top Shot: Interactive Target Shooting'' (1998)
* ''
Redneck Rampage
''Redneck Rampage'' is a 1997 first-person shooter game developed by Xatrix Entertainment and published by Interplay Entertainment, Interplay. The game is a first-person shooter with a variety of weapons and levels, and has a hillbilly theme, pr ...
'' (1999, Mac port)
* ''
Jazz Jackrabbit 2'' (1999, Mac port)
* ''Galactic Patrol'' (1999, Mac port)
* ''
Bugdom
''Bugdom'' is a 1999 platform video game originally created by Pangea Software for Mac OS 9. It was included with the iMac DV 2000 and later iBook models. The Microsoft Windows version, released in 2000, was developed by Hoplite Research and pub ...
'' (1999)
* ''
Myth III: The Wolf Age'' (2001)
* ''
Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn'' (2001, Mac port)
* ''
Nanosaur Extreme'' (2002)
* ''
Icewind Dale
''Icewind Dale'' is a role-playing video game developed by Black Isle Studios and originally published by Interplay Entertainment for Windows in 2000 and by MacPlay for the Macintosh in 2002 (both the Classic Mac OS and OS X). The game takes pl ...
'' (2002, Mac port)
* ''
Hexen II
''Hexen II'' is a dark fantasy first-person shooter (FPS) video game developed by Raven Software and published by id Software. It is the third game in the '' Hexen''/''Heretic'' series, and the last in the ''Serpent Riders'' trilogy. Using a modi ...
'' (2002, Mac port)
* ''
Activision Anthology
''Activision Anthology'' is a compilation of most of the Atari 2600 games by Activision for various game systems. It also includes games that were originally released by Absolute Entertainment and Imagic, as well as various homebrew games. The ...
'' (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)
See also
*
List of programmers
This is a list of programmers notable for their contributions to software, either as original author or architect, or for later additions. All entries must already have associated articles.
A
*Michael Abrash – program optimization and x86 ...
*
List of women in the video game industry
This is a list of notable women in the video game industry.
Notable women in the video game industry
* Mabel Addis wrote the mainframe game ''The Sumerian Game'' (1964), becoming the first female video game designer.
* Anna Anthropy, ...
*
Women and video games
The relationship between women and video games has received extensive academic and media attention. Since the 1990s, female gamers have commonly been regarded as a minority. However, industry surveys have shown that over time, the gender ratio h ...
*
Women in computing
Women in computing were among the first programmers in the early 20th century, and contributed substantially to the industry. As technology and practices altered, the role of women as programmers has changed, and the recorded history of the fiel ...
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heineman, Rebecca
Computer programmers
Interplay Entertainment people
LGBT people from California
Living people
Microsoft people
People from Whittier, California
Transgender women
Video game programmers
Women video game programmers
Year of birth missing (living people)