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.

 

[Pinball 2000]

As far as I'm aware, their biggest contribution to gaming is the 1996 3DO port of Doom. The “official” story is that Burger was given only a couple of weeks to complete the port, and allegedly ended up doing all of the work alone. Their boss had paid a ridiculous amount of money for the publishing rights after overpromising and not understanding the amount of work required to do a port.

The port itself is notoriously bad and is considered the worst of the “official” console versions. It runs at a terrible framerate, many of the maps were altered, enemy behavior is slightly broken, and the BFG isn’t even obtainable without cheat codes. The port is more notable for being developed solo in only a couple of weeks, rather than the several months and full teams that created earlier ports. It does, however, have a pretty good custom soundtrack with some remixes. Still, overall, the port is essentially one of those situations of “yeah, this version sucks, but considering the insanely short turnaround, it’s kind of impressive for 1996.”

 

[Otis Mallebrok]

I hate most troons. Especially the autogynephiles who troon out on wife and kids. Them I hate the most.

You were a shit father, a shit husband and a shit programmer, mr Heineken.

 

[Broken Talisman]

Beyond the obvious reasons I was always made deeply uncomfortable with Jaquays' relationship with this freak. I get that trannies travel in packs, but it's unfortunate that a talented albeit disturbed man like Jaquays will forever be associated with Burger Bill.

 

[Whiskey]

Honestly surprised this dude never got a thread when he was alive. Seems like he would make the perfect candidate for one. Well there’s always the Lolcows of History board for him to be in.

All it takes to not be a cow is to not post every fuck up in your life and double down. It shouldn't be that hard but thankfully a certain type of person cant help themselves.

While full of themselves this is an obituary isnt it? In life they likely just clocked in or out...maybe I don't know. I'm on of those saps that let's the dead rest.

 

[Looney Troons]

Didn’t people (see: troons) make a big deal about his faggy lover who died and their “contributions” to D&D?

 

[reptile baht spaniard rid]

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.

If you assume any female programmer you hear about is a tranny, you'll be right roughly 90% of the time. Even the OG ones. The troon plague hit programmers first, decades before it became mainstream.

If my daughter married, had five kids, and then told me she was a programmer, I'd assume she was a tranny. That's how often you'll be right, 99% of "women programmers" are men.

Still, overall, the port is essentially one of those situations of “yeah, this version sucks, but considering the insanely short turnaround, it’s kind of impressive for 1996.”

Porting DooM is insanely easy - if you know programming, and know how it's modularized, you can do ports relatively quickly.

Reading https://fabiensanglard.net/gebbdoom/ gives you a pretty good understanding of the engine and how it ports; you'll notice the 3DO port is the shittiest, whereas others even added features and improved performance (the book notes a few places where even Carmack admits "we fucked the pooch").

 

[Outer Space Traveller]

That face. Seriously, look at that face.

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.

Uhuh, very cool.

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."

"I have been forgotten by time, so now I need come out. But how do I come out in 2020s...? Oh yes! Become a tranny!"

Jennell Jaquays

LMAO what is this name?

 

[Haramburger]

Last month's A&H thread about this historic troon. I guess it sucks for anybody tricked into donating to the 90%, $100K GoFundMe since they've croaked.

 

[CircuSphere]

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.

> Mainline cross-sex hormones
> Die suddenly of cancer 2 years before retirement

Everyday the pattern reveals itself a little bit, every day I see the intent more clearly. These people are indeed victims, they just don't know their enemy and can't find their assailant in the crowd. RIP.

 

[Mr. Duck]

As far as I'm aware, their biggest contribution to gaming is the 1996 3DO port of Doom. The “official” story is that Burger was given only a couple of weeks to complete the port, and allegedly ended up doing all of the work alone. Their boss had paid a ridiculous amount of money for the publishing rights after overpromising and not understanding the amount of work required to do a port.

The port itself is notoriously bad and is considered the worst of the “official” console versions. It runs at a terrible framerate, many of the maps were altered, enemy behavior is slightly broken, and the BFG isn’t even obtainable without cheat codes. The port is more notable for being developed solo in only a couple of weeks, rather than the several months and full teams that created earlier ports. It does, however, have a pretty good custom soundtrack with some remixes. Still, overall, the port is essentially one of those situations of “yeah, this version sucks, but considering the insanely short turnaround, it’s kind of impressive for 1996.”

It's also worth noting that Burger Bill's boss in that project ended up arrested for being a pedo years later, so his "biggest contribution to gaming" is working with a pedophile on the worst official port of Doom.

https://abc7.com/post/music-teacher-charged-with-lewd-acts-on-2-young-students/2237237/

 

[Sigg Kyle]

Geg wasn’t there a thread yesterday about him begging for donations?

 

[CAPTAIN HAPPY]

Rest in pies, Bill. You were a solid guy. Not so much later in years though.

 

[Halbschwanz]

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.

Romero's pozzed enough at this point that if someone brought this up he'd machine gun mea culpas like a bitch.

 

[Tanner Glass]

"I have been forgotten by time, so now I need come out. But how do I come out in 2020s...? Oh yes! Become a tranny!"

He transed out in 2003. Probably as a way to get out of his 5-kids relationship and as a cover for just being a late gay.

 

[Flaming Dumpster]

Pretty wild that he went from being diagnosed to dead in a month. Must've been very aggressive or he was doing everything in his power to ignore symptoms. Have they said what kind of cancer it was? A little part of me hopes it was prostate cancer as a little YWNBAW cherry on top.

 

[The handsome tard]

The first female game developer had a penis, I see

Trannies stealing the spotlight from women seems to be a tale as old as time.

 

[Nick Gars]

What an idiot. And based Carmack coming in clutch and doing the whole thing himself, like always. Now that guy deserves the title of "legendary."

Carmack and Newell (even though I personally think most Valve games are overrated to Hell and back) are two of the very few names in this industry that I feel warrant the glaze they get or such a prestigious title. If we had more of either, the game industry would be less shitty by orders of magnitude.

 

[thx1138]

Oh no. Anyway.....

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

How can you not laugh at the absurdity of this?

So today I went down this trail of breadcrumbs. Come to find out that TSR artist and creator Paul Jaquays who did some pretty good art for D&D back in the day trooned out, and was married to this other dude, who just died.

What a weird fuckin' world it's become.

 

[Daddy's Little Kitten]

Kiwi Farms claims another tranny life. When will it end?

 

[Irregardless]

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.

It's also sad knowing that not every example of this is gunna be caught, so history will be littered with these degenerates taking credit for things they barely had any involvement in, and also claiming to be a "woman" when the reality is they were a 30 something year old autistic guy at the time, and didn't transition until they were in their 40's/50's.