Rest in power, Rebecca Heineman
Co-founder of Interplay, game developer, archivist, and fanfiction writer. Her knowledge and breadth of experience in the world of video game development might actually be best described as "everything".
While still a teenager, she copied cartridges and reverse-engineered Atari 2600 code. As a developer, she wore many hats: systems engineering, emulating, project lead, game and level developer, map designer, software reconstructor, audio engineering and playtesting. Some of her works include The Bard's Tale (1985) and Wasteland (1988). She also ported games, handled programming and was tasked with handling libraries and utilities for diverse systems. Some are Wolfenstein 3D (1995, Mac/3DO), Doom (1996, 3DO), Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2001, Mac port). She made contributions to Borderlands 2 (2012) and Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep: A Wonderlands One-shot Adventure (2021). She also worked on a cancelled Mac OS Half-Life port. Rebecca co-founded Logicware in 1995, where she served as chief technology officer and lead programmer. In 1999, she co-founded Contraband Games and was chief executive officer. Rebecca was a software architect for Amazon and Bloomberg LP, facilitated training for Xbox 360 development and worked on kernel code for Sony's Playstation Portable and PS4. Per MobyGames, Rebecca has 123 credits on 67 titles.
When news broke that no one had the original Fallout source code - it was assumed destroyed because Interplay demanded employees destroy assets and code they didn't own - Rebecca announced she had archived it along with each and every game the studio worked on. Since 2008, she illustrated and wrote Sailor Ranko, a Sailor Moon and Ranma 1/2 crossover fancomic. In 1980, she was the first USA national esports champion when she won the National Space Invaders Championship held by Atari.
October 30, 1963 – November 17, 2025
