Legendary game designer, programmer, Space Invaders champion, and LGBTQ trailblazer Rebecca Heineman has died - OG troon game programmer Burger Bill has died

PC Gamer (Archive)



Game developer Rebecca Heineman has died after being diagnosed with cancer last month. The news was shared to Bluesky by Heineman's friend, Heidi McDonald, while the most recent post on Heineman's GoFundMe is a goodbye message stating that her health was rapidly deteriorating, and she was entering palliative care. Heineman was 62, and the GoFundMe will remain live to help her family make final arrangements.

Born in 1963, Heineman initially made a mark on the industry by winning a national Space Invaders tournament in 1980 in New York, becoming the first formally recognized US champion of any videogame. She went on to have a far-reaching career, being credited on 67 games according to MobyGames.

Heineman co-founded Interplay in 1983 alongside Brian Fargo, Jay Patel, and Troy Worrell. The developer and publisher was the source of many foundational PC games, including Wasteland, Fallout, and Baldur's Gate. Heineman designed and programmed a number of games at Interplay, with her most prominent design credit being The Bard's Tale 3: Thief of Fate.

Heineman's friend and colleague from Interplay, Brian Fargo, shared a remembrance of the developer on X. "Rebecca Heineman sadly passed away," Fargo wrote. "Known her since the 80s when I'd drive her to work, one of the most brilliant programmers around. A real gut punch earlier today when she messaged me: 'We have gone on so many adventures together! But, into the great unknown! I go first!!!'"

Later, in the '90s and 2000s, Heineman made a name primarily as a programmer, particularly on ports like the Macintosh versions of Wolfenstein 3D, Baldur's Gate, and Icewind Dale. The saga of Heineman overcoming a deranged businessman to solo program the ill-fated 3DO port of Doom in mere weeks has become a bit of an internet legend: Here's Digital Foundry and Heineman herself recounting the tale.

Heineman publicly came out as transgender in the 2000s, and was married to fellow games industry legend Jennell Jaquays. Heineman was the recipient of Gayming's 2025 Gayming Icon award, with the site writing that "her advocacy for LGBTQ+ inclusion, accessibility, and diversity in tech has inspired countless developers and players."

Jaquays died of complications from Guillain–Barré syndrome in January 2024, and Heineman was blindsided last month by an aggressive cancer diagnosis. She turned to GoFundMe to help with the costs of treatment, where fans, friends, and industry peers showed up to support the developer.

Heineman shared the message last night that her health was rapidly declining.

"It's time. According to my doctors. All further treatments are pointless," Heineman wrote. "So, please donate so my kids can create a funeral worthy of my keyboard, Pixelbreaker! So I can make a worthy entrance for reuniting with my one true love, Jennell Jaquays."

Game developers have begun sharing their own condolences and remembrances in the wake of Heineman's death.

 

[Drifting Panzer]

I think we are a bit too loose with the word "legendary".

 

[TheArtilleryman]

I think we are a bit too loose with the word "legendary".

Words mean whatever they feel like. See "Woman".

 

[crunchy bits are the best]

Oh no. Anyway.....

her advocacy for LGBTQ+ inclusion, accessibility, and diversity

The usual buzzwords. Identifying yourself as one of the alphabet crowd is nothing special at this point.

"So, please donate so my kids can create a funeral worthy of my keyboard, Pixelbreaker! So I can make a worthy entrance for reuniting with my one true love, Jennell Jaquays."

How can you not laugh at the absurdity of this?

 

[Pierre D'Olnique]

Never heard of him. Unsurprising looking at the list of his "contributions", since it's basically all Mac ports. He wasn't involved in any of the influential games mentioned in the article. As usual, reaching for the pedestal by association. Rest in piss boomer tranny, you did nothing of note or worth.

 

[Calandrino]

you did nothing of note or worth.

That's a mother of five children you're insulting

 

[Duane Dibbley]

Heineman co-founded Interplay in 1983 alongside Brian Fargo, Jay Patel, and Troy Worrell. The developer and publisher was the source of many foundational PC games, including Wasteland, Fallout, and Baldur's Gate.

Thank you for that, in whatever way you helped build this legendary dev.

The saga of Heineman overcoming a deranged businessman to solo program the ill-fated 3DO port of Doom in mere weeks has become a bit of an internet legend: Here's Digital Foundry and Heineman herself recounting the tale.

Can't even keep the gender story straight.

Why does gaming cause people to troon out?

 

[Michael Bluth]

only know about that 3DO DOOM port

 

[Pierre D'Olnique]

That's a mother of five children you're insulting

Was*.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

please donate so my kids can create a funeral worthy of my keyboard,

If you are shilled enough to get this level of ass licking from the press but burned all your wealth on dilators and drugs then you deserve to be put in a can and dumped at sea.

 

[guiltyspark85]

I think we are a bit too loose with the word "legendary".

I think 'infamous' is more appropriate. From Masters of Doom:
Romero marched into the kitchen at id, waving a crudely drawn caricature of Burger Bill, the renowned gamer rumored to keep hamburgers for days in his desk. Tom, Kevin, and Adrian followed, cackling. Romero stapled Bill’s picture to the chair, then grabbed a steak knife from the drawer. It was time for revenge.

Bill had been contracted by id to convert or port Wolfenstein for the Super Nintendo. But with the deadline approaching, he still hadn’t delivered an iota. He finally admitted that there was a problem: he had made the mistake of signing id’s contract while employed by the game publisher Interplay. His contract with Interplay stipulated that any work an employee did was property of the company; the Super Nintendo port, therefore, was now owned by Interplay.

The id guys flipped. “See,” Romero said, “this is just the kind of bullshit you get when you rely on other people.” Tom took out a pencil and sketched a hideous caricature of Bill with burger meat dripping from his greasy mouth. Romero swiped it from his hands and said it was time for Bill to pay the price. In the kitchen, they took turns stabbing the picture, yelling and laughing and egging each other on. They began attacking the chair, knifing it, stomping it, trashing it. Days later, when Bill came to visit, the ruins were still on the floor. He took one look at the knife with his name scrawled on the blade and asked meekly, “Um, what’s this?” Then they fired him. Carmack would do the port himself.

 

[Cnut]

Hopefully someone can get all the Interplay source code this guy supposedly hoarded.

 

[redlenses2112]

That reminds me, there's been ongoing work on a new port of 3DO. It's a pretty interesting watch. It's still a long while from any full release but hey.

 

[Battlefield2142EU]

Hoe looks like a 90s Troll doll.

 

[Breadbassket]

Never heard of him. Unsurprising looking at the list of his "contributions", since it's basically all Mac ports. He wasn't involved in any of the influential games mentioned in the article. As usual, reaching for the pedestal by association. Rest in piss boomer tranny, you did nothing of note or worth.

Looking at his credit list, his most notable accolades were being the lead programmer for the first-person shooter Killing Time and the platforming title Bugdom. The former was apparently a success for 3DO in its day and got a remaster recently and the latter wasn't all that terrible but has fallen into a great deal of obscurity.

 

[Necrosan]

Heineman publicly came out as transgender in the 2000s, and was married to fellow games industry legend Jennell Jaquays. Heineman was the recipient of Gayming's 2025 Gayming Icon award, with the site writing that "her advocacy for LGBTQ+ inclusion, accessibility, and diversity in tech has inspired countless developers and players."

Jaquays died of complications from Guillain–Barré syndrome in January 2024, and Heineman was blindsided last month by an aggressive cancer diagnosis. She turned to GoFundMe to help with the costs of treatment, where fans, friends, and industry peers showed up to support the developer.

Heineman shared the message last night that her health was rapidly declining.

"It's time. According to my doctors. All further treatments are pointless," Heineman wrote. "So, please donate so my kids can create a funeral worthy of my keyboard, Pixelbreaker! So I can make a worthy entrance for reuniting with my one true love, Jennell Jaquays."

Game developers have begun sharing their own condolences and remembrances in the wake of Heineman's death.

What's funny is that you can see how the brainrot starts to overtake the guy but also how the identity game starts to take over his life and other people's perception of him. All of the sudden, it's all about how gay he was and everything he did before coming out of the closet is just used to, essentially, show other people that he was an important gay person.

His tombstone is just going to have a coat of tranny paint splattered on it and that's everything that ever mattered about him in the end to these people.

 

[Blewberry Nausea]

Regarding the recent news of Rebecca Heineman's passing, she revealed that the 3DO port of Doom 1 was going to have cutscenes. Live-action FMV cutscenes but it was sadly cut. She posted some behind the scenes photos. Hope someone finds any recorded footage


Also last photo of him alive

 

[S.C.U.D.]

Burger Bill story from Masters of Doom:

 

[Blackstar]

When watching vids about 3DO Doom I was surprised when the programmer in the story was female. Should've expected it to have been a tranny.

 

[Brain Power]

Guy abandoned a wife and children to chase tranny coom and marry another tranny, not exactly worthy of admiring.