Rebecca Ann Heineman was born William Salvador Heineman[1] on October 30, 1963,[2][3] and raised in Whittier, California.[4] When she was young, she could not afford to purchase games for her Atari 2600, 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 the console's code to understand how the games were made.[5] 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 hence considered to be the first national video game tournament champion.[5]
Career
After she won the tournament, Heineman was offered a writing job for monthly magazine Electronic Games 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. 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.[5]
Contraband was wound down in 2013, and Heineman founded a new company, Olde Sküül, together with Jennell Jaquays, Maurine Starkey, and Susan Manley. At Olde Sküül, Heineman acts as CEO.[5]
Personal life
Around 2003, Heineman was diagnosed with gender dysphoria and began transitioning to live as a woman.[1][6] She formally changed her given name to Rebecca Ann.[1][7] Since the transition, Heineman has been living as a lesbian.[1] She has five children and was married to Jennell Jaquays until the death of the latter.[1][8] Heineman resides in El Cerrito, California, where her company Olde Sküül is located.[5][9]
Heineman is recognized as the first national video game tournament champion for winning the 1980 National Space Invaders Championship.[5]Sailor Ranko, a Sailor Moon-based fanfiction 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.[10][5] In 2017, she became an inductee for the International Video Game Hall of Fame.[5]
