2019-04-01_Retro_Gamer

SELECTED TIMELINE

GAMES

QCHUCK NORRIS SUPERKICKS [1983]

VIC-20/C64

QROBIN HOOD [1983] VIC-20

QMINDSHADOW [1984] APPLE II/C64

QTHE TRACER SANCTION [1984] APPLE II/C64

QBORROWED TIME [1985] APPLE II/C64

QTASS TIMES IN TONETOWN [1986] APPLE II/C64

QBARD’S TALE I [1986] APPLE II/C64

QBARD’S TALE III [1988] APPLE II/C64

QWASTELAND [1988] APPLE II

QDRAGON WARS [1989] APPLE II/C64/PC

QOUT OF THIS WORLD [1992]

APPLE IIGS/SNES/MAC/3DO

QWOLFENSTEIN 3D [1995]

APPLE IIGS/SNES/MAC/3DO

QDESCENT [1995] PC

QDOOM [1996] 3DO

QQUAKE II [1999] MAC

QHERETIC II [2002] MAC

QMEDAL OF HONOR: PACIFIC ASSAULT

[2004] PC

QMEDAL OF HONOR: EUROPEAN ASSAULT

[2005] PS2/XBOX/GC

QHALF-LIFE [UNRELEASED] MAC

QGOLDENEYE: ROGUE AGENT [2005]

PS2/XBOX/GC

QCOMMAND AND CONQUER 3: TIBERIUM

WARS [2007] MAC/PC/XBOX

QALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS [2007]

PS2/WII/PC/DS

QKINECT [2010] XBOX 360

and I couldn’t afford to destroy my

livelihood. So when people started giving

me this nickname of ‘Burger’, it was the

perfect way for me to have a name I could

carry with me to the day when I would finally

come out. People wouldn’t wonder, ‘Who’s

this Becky person?’, they’d go ‘Oh, Burger!

We know Burger!’

So you always knew you were Becky?

Oh yes, ever since I was a little girl. When I

first confessed it to my parents, I was beaten

almost to death. So I kept it quiet and it’s one

of the reasons I don’t talk about my family anymore.

Is it why you left home when you were just 17?

I’d already ran away when I was 15 and lived behind a

dumpster for a couple of months. Then I found out my

parents were divorcing. My dad, who was the main

source of my problems, wasn’t around anymore, and

I kind of tolerated my mom so I moved back in with

her. I’d already dropped out of school by then and was

working at JC Penny and at the arcade. Then I entered

that competition and the rest is history. I could leave

home and not deal with any of that family baggage.

You travelled from West Coast to East Coast and

joined Avalon Hill in Maryland to code Atari 2600

games. Do you remember that as a happy time?

I remember lying about my age because you have to

be 18 to sign a contract, but yes I was quite happy. I

was being paid to do something I’d have done for free!

Avalon Hill had several properties around Maryland and

I had a room in one of them. Downstairs was a kitchen

and a large, open development room with this long

table and we all worked there, coming up with ideas

for games like Out Of Control and London Blitz.

You then landed a job back in California with

Atari... but only for two weeks!

Yeah, they fired everybody, including the guy that

hired me! I remember being assigned my desk and a

guy giving me code and telling me I was working on

Robotron for the Atari 400. Then, nothing. I didn’t get

any more supervision. I suppose the management knew

about the layoffs. Two weeks later, I arrived at work and

heard people crying and walking around with boxes.

On my desk was an envelope with my pay and a note

saying, ‘Thank you for your work at Atari.’ I looked round

and said, ‘Erm, I guess I’ll be going then...’ to no one in

particular, jumped in my pick-up truck and drove away.

At least you could put ‘programmer at Atari’ on

your CV.

Actually, I got my next job at a company called Boone

because I was a 2600 programmer and they wanted

these Atari games converting to the C64 and VIC-20,

games like Robin Hood and Chuck Norris Superkicks.

It must have been a challenge rendering the

mighty Chuck Norris on such limited hardware.

Well, the VIC-20 at least had 2-bit sprites, one more

than the Atari, but he was still just a white silhouette

of a man... [bursts into Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody]

Scaramouche, Scaramouche! To be honest, all Boone

cared was being able to send off the final ROMs to

Xonox, the games division of K-Tel, so they got paid.

Did you get paid well?

Oh no, they paid me shit. But remember, my only

reference was working at JC Penny and an arcade so I

thought minimum wage was what they paid for all jobs.

Then we all got fired because the owner, Mike Boone,

didn’t want to do videogames any more. He wants to

sell popsicles at swap meets.

Sorry, you mean ice creams at what we’d call car

boot sales?

Yeah. He figured people would be there on hot summer

days and he did some numbers... though actually, he did

do the right thing, because after that didn’t work out, he

got into selling whiteboards and made millions.

This must have led to you forming Interplay?

We were all saying, ‘Well, we’ve been canned. What we

gonna do? Hey, why don’t we make our own company!’

It was Brian Fargo, Troy [Worrell], Jay Patel and myself –

we were the ones making the games. Fargo got this guy

Chris Wells to invest $25K and that was our seed to set

up Interplay. Wells-Fargo... the jokes write themselves! I

was kind of isolated from the business side and I had no

»^ [PC] The third Bard’s Tale game was three times the size of Bard’s Tale II, and it introduced automapping to the series. interest in it. I just wanted to make cool stuff.

I wanted to play as a

female character, and

I didn’t want to be told

women didn’t play

these games

Rebecca Heineman

92 | RETRO GAMER