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| Author | Rebecca Heinemann has passed away (Read 459 times) | ||||||||||||||||||
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Bolkonskij
Administrator 1024 MB  Posts: 2023 
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on: November 20, 2025, 12:41
Sadly, Rebecca BurgerBecky Heinemann has passed away (modern browser needed). From the article: "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" That just doesn't do her justice, she did so much more and has been on amiable terms with the retro Mac community until lately, giving interviews, chats and such. A few years ago David Murray aka the 8-Bit Guy told me that she was willing to do the Mac OS port of Attack of the Petscii Robots. Unfortunately, it seems she never got around finishing it. She was also the one who had ported Half Life for Mac OS 7-9 only to have Sierra cancel the release of the finished Mac version. A true loss at only age 62 due to cancer :-( |
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ShinobiKenobi
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256 MB  Posts: 362 System 7 fan
Reply #1 on: November 26, 2025, 11:53
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I am very saddened to hear that news. In 1980, back when she was still William Salvador Heineman, she won a Space Invaders tournament. Then she won another one in New York later that year. So that made her the first champion of a US video game tournament. I always thought that was so cool.
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lauland
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512 MB Posts: 674 Symtes 7 Mewconer!
Reply #2 on: November 26, 2025, 17:15
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She popped up on one of the Mac related discord channels I'm on, and I got to chat with her a bit, which was a minor thrill, as she was a personal hero. This was a few months back. She was trying to get powerpc cross compilers to work on intel XServes, but running too new an os, so no Rosetta. I suggested macports, but she was having some sort of odd trouble and don't think ever resolved. But she was still, even relatively recently, planning SOMETHING for our beloved platform. ---- For the record, here's my effort on PETSCII over at MG: Attack of the PETSCII Robots (unfinished source code) (http link) FYI I'm getting the same "it gets stuck" results even on MacOS X (with an "official" SDL) as on MacOS 7-9. I based it on the SDL version, but am now thinking maybe the Amiga one would've been better. I wish I'd talked to Burger Becky about it! (Hearing she'd gotten stuck at the same point would've been quite validating).
Last Edit: November 26, 2025, 17:26 by lauland
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ShinobiKenobi
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256 MB Posts: 362 System 7 fan
Reply #3 on: November 27, 2025, 05:08
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I just did a search on Heineman, and found a forum post about her passing on rpghq.org. It was one of the most disgusting pages of posts I ever found. I am surprised how many people have so much hate for a pioneer in their own field. I don't recommend going there, but I wanted to call out the site so people will know how shameful they are there.
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Bolkonskij
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Administrator 1024 MB Posts: 2023
Reply #4 on: November 27, 2025, 07:18
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It's a phenomena that some people seem to deliberately indulge in negativity. From my experience, it's also mostly a Western World (North America + Europe) thing and it seems to get bigger? Makes me remember my grandfather (war generation!) who always used to say that sarcasm is the way of the weak to cope with reality. Not sure if that applies to everybody though. Some may just be genuinely ... I think one should also emphasis, as lauland said, that Rebecca has always been very kind and friendly to our retro Mac communities. Like @ClassicHasClass mentioned on his blog regarding the passing how she was very complimentary of TenFourFox back in the day when he was still developing it. Ultimately, it's a loss and one far too early at age 62 :-(
Last Edit: November 27, 2025, 07:29 by Bolkonskij
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