A List Of Games By Trans People Before 2010
by Dot Maetrix
(Note:
This list is incomplete and uncompletable. It is my hope that if this
list shows anything, it's that trans people have ALWAYS been here)
280 ZZZAP (1977, Arcade)
A driving game by Jamie Fenton, published by Midway with brand
licensing from Nissan. Plays very much like Atari's Night Driver (both
games were based on the 1976 German machine Nürburgring). The display
for the game was enhanced by an overlay that separated the dashboard
display from the road with a basic physical model of the car bonnet and
dashboard, creating a physical 3D effect. The game was later
ported to the Bally Astrocade, a console which Fenton worked on.
Gameplay footage on an original arcade machine (YouTube)
Activision Anthology (2002, PS2)
Collection of Activision's Atari 2600 games, playable in an emulator
programmed by Rebecca "Burger Becky" Heineman. Also happens to be the
first official compilation of Activision's early games to include Space
Shuttle: A Journey Into Space, which just happens to have its own entry
Advanced Pinball Simulator (1988, Commodore 64)
Music and sound by Julie Dunn.
Theme music can be listened to here (Youtube link)
The Adventures of Robby Roto (1981 Arcade)
Arcade
game by Jamie Fenton, with an aesthetic similar to her glitch
art work. Players have to dig through tunnels, avoid spiders, and
rescue wee smiley faces trapped in the tunnels. Power ups make the
player briefly immune to attack, but don't allow the player to attack
the enemies, something which Fenton felt on reflection made the game
lack the table-turning catharsis games like Pac Man had.
Unsuccessful in the coin-op market, only 2000 units were
produced. Fenton retains the rights to the game, which she has made
freely available.
Arcade ROM available for free
Age of Empires III (2005, PC)
Jennell Jaquays was one of the artists. As well as doing art for the
base game and War Chiefs expansion, she also staged created screenshots
for marketing, including the one above. She would call it her favourite
videogame project to work on.
Aliens: The Computer Game (1986, Commodore 64)
Additional graphics by Jennifer Diane Reitz
Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007, PS2, Wii)
Ever
wanted to play a rhythm game where you listen to Chipmunkified covers
of 500 Miles, Tubthumping, and Love Shack? Well too bad, it exists
anyway! Rebecca Heineman was one of the engine programmers.
Another World (1992, SNES, Apple II GS, 3DO)
Ports programmed by Rebecca Heineman. The SNES version in particular is
notable in that she got the base system to render polygon-based vector
graphics at a playable framerate without an enhancement chip. Eric
Chahi gave her a signed copy of the game's box art for her work. She
still has it.
The IIGS version is also notable in that it was the last
commercially released Apple II GS game to hit retail. Rebecca Heineman also coded the first, Tass Times in Tone Town, making her work bookend the entire life of the computer.
Asheron's Call - Throne of Destiny (2005, PC)
Executive Producer: Jess Mulligan
"I was responsible for all parts of ongoing Live development and for
transitioning the franchise from our former publisher, Microsoft, to a
self-published product. This included being part of the team that set
up all facets of the Live service, including P&L responsibility,
Customer Service, Community Management, Marketing, PR and Network
Operations"
- from her Linkedin
Asteroids (1979, Arcade)
Created using the vector graphics engine designed by Wendi Allen for Lunar Lander
HOLY SHIT ASTEROIDS IS ON HERE
Astrorock (1996, DOS)
DOS version by Rebecca Heineman
Bank Shot: Electronic Pool (1980, dedicated handheld system)
It's a handheld pool simulator where the balls are represented by a
grid of LEDs. Kinda nifty for something this early. Co-designed by
Jessica Stevens
TV ad for Bank Shot
The Bard's Tale (1985, Apple II)
Coding by Rebecca Heineman
The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate (1988, Apple II)
Rebecca Heineman took over a lot of design work in this game
Battlezone (1980, Arcade)
Created using Wendi Allen's vector graphics engine
Bloodrayne 2 (2004, Gamecube, PS2, Xbox)
Level design by Emilia Schatz
Blowout (2002, Gamecube, PS2, Xbox)
Emilia Schatz was the senior level designer on this one
Boppin (1991, Amiga, PC)
By Jennifer Diane Reitz
Official Site - comes with a downloadble Windows version but I couldn't get it to work
Breakers (1986, Apple II)
Text adventure created using Cathryn Mataga's BTZ (it stands for Better Than Zork) engine
Brimstone (1985, Apple II)
Text adventure created used Cathryn Mataga's BTZ engine
Carnival (1982, Atari 2600)
Space Invaders but it's a carnival shooting gallery. Originally a Sega arcade game, ported to the 2600 by Jessica Stevens
Cartels and Cutthroat$ (1981, Apple II, Atari 8-bit)
by Danielle Bunten Berry
Casper (1996, 3DO)
Ported by Rebecca Heineman
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005, GBA)
Programmed by Cathryn Mataga
Charlotte's Web (2005, GBA)
Programmed by Cathryn Mataga
Checkmate (19XX, Arcade, Astrocade)
Another one of Jamie Fenton's early games at Bally Midway, from when
you could pretty much still get away with making games that were simply
a better version of existing games. In this case it's a variant on
Blockade by Gremlin Industries, but playable with up to four players
instead of just two. This is in turn a multiplayer variant of the game
best known as Snake. Players travel around a field creating a trail
behind them, and have to avoid crashing into other players' trails or
their own. A trail disappears when the player dies. This would
ultimately be the kind of gameplay that would inspire the Light Cycles
game in Tron. The game would also be ported to the Bally Astrocade, the
early home gaming system that Fenton worked on. The audio from this
version can be heard in her early glitch art video, Digital TV Dinner.
Chex Quest 3 (2008, PC)
The long awaited third episode of the DOOM mod you could get in boxes
of the Chex breakfast cereal in the States for a while. Originally an
unofficial sequel by the original developer, General Mills have made it
canon as of 2019. A couple of the tracks are by Sabrina DiDuro, who is
more recently known for the Freedom Planet games.
Chiki Chiki Tengoku (1995, Game Boy)
A match-three falling-blocks puzzle game by Megu-Tan, inspired by the
fact that her boss was playing a lot of Doctor Mario at the time.
Chiller (1984, C64)
Lemme tell you how much "Oh no!" i felt when i realized I was going to
have to look this one up, because there was a torture porn shooting
game for the arcades by the same name a couple years later. It's fine
though, this particular Chiller is just a relatively cute platformer
wher you play as a boy travelling from location to location avoiding
monsters and skellingtons and collecting magic crosses. With that said
it DID manage to attract its own little bit of controversy. The devs
decided to be a little bit naughty and commissioned Julie Dunn to write
a piece of music that rips off Michael Jackson's Thriller as blatantly
as possible, and to have a second track that they could use as backup
the instant they got in trouble. Dunn obliged, and so there are two
versions of the game out there now. The music in both is pretty great.
Chuck Norris Superkicks (1983, C64, VIC-20)
Honestly there's something kinda funny about having this icon of
Terminally Online Masculinity on this list, but here we are. Originally
a 2600 game, the Commodore ports were handled by Rebecca Heineman in
one of her first jobs in the business.
Club Penguin (2007, PC)
Long-running children's MMO where you played as a penguin and did stuff
on an island full of other penguins who were other players. Charlene
Burbidge, who went on to make Princess Farmer, worked behind the scenes
on Club Penguin and reached out to me to say what she worked on.
"i did some parties and newspapers and stage plays between 2007 and like
uhhhh the next bunch of years lol. and i did the comics. and then went
on to directing/producing stuff like the epf relaunch and some of the
games post 2010"
Command HQ (1990, PC)
by Danielle Bunten Berry
Computer Quarterback (1981, Apple II)
by Danielle Bunten Berry
Crystal Quest (1989, Apple II GS)
Ported by Rebecca Heineman
Curse of Babylon (1990, C64)
Originally a game for the PC-88, the C64 version was coded by Cathryn Mataga
Cytron Masters (1982, Apple II, Atari 8-bit)
by Danielle Bunten Berry. I've seen people say this is the first ever Real Time Strategy game
D/Generation (1991, Amiga)
Isometric cyberpunk puzzle game by Veda Hlubinka-Cook
Daley Thompson's Decathlon (1984, C64)
No doubt there's some degree of irony to be had that Daley Thompson is
something of an outspoken transphobe these days (not to mention
something of an outspoken homophobe at the time), and honestly the
Speccy version of the joystick-breaking sports games featuring his name
(if not always his likeness) are the most iconic, but hey, Julie Dunn
did the wee jingles that play between stages on the C64 version so here
it is on the list
Dark Sun: Crimson Sands (1996, PC)
Early MMORPG. Front end of online coded by Cathryn Mataga
"Developed the Dark Sun Online game
for the PC. This was a persistent world MMRPG for the PC. Was
responsible for development of the front end programming, and managed a
contract programmer responsible for the back end (Unix, SunOS)."
-from Cathryn Mataga's Linkedin
Dark Tower (1984, C64)
Music by Julie Dunn
Defiance (1997, PC)
Rebecca Heineman is credited as a level designer on this one
Desert Gun (Arcade, 1977)
Arcade gun game by Jamie Fenton. Originally titled Road Runner before Warner Bros's lawyers started breathing down Midway's neck
Dinosaur (2000, GBC)
Programmed by Cathryn Mataga
Doctor Who (Amiga, 1992)
Artist and designer: Jennifer Diane Reitz. A promoware title put out by
Accursed Toys to showcase their skills. You play as the Doctor (and
every time you lose a life you regenerate and cycle through from
Hartnell to McCoy) and must navigate each level in such a way that your
sworn enemies, be they Daleks, Cybermen, Yeti or Krynoids, shoot each
other or blow themselves up trying to get you, while you try and
collect the Key To Time before The Master does.
Domain (1988 sort of, C64)
Unpublished game leaked by a cracker group. It's not really clear who
made it, but the music driver is Julie Dunn's so it's fair to say the
music is hers.
Donkey Kong (1982, Colecovision)
Once again, Donkey Kong says trans rights! The 1982 Colecovision port
by Jennell Jaquays only features 3 out of the four arcade levels, but
was pretty much the best version out there until Nintendo made their
own home console with its own version of Donkey Kong.
DOOM (1996, 3DO)
Rebecca Heineman's heroic disaster of a port, foisted on her by Art
Data Interactive's Randy Scott, who lied to her about the state of the
project she was picking up and made numerous unhinged demands for extra
weapons and FMV sequences to be added to the game. This is on top of
the fact that the whole port had to be done in a ten week deadline, so
that the game could make it to shelves before Art Data Interactive's
rights to the game expired. Oh, and he also didn't provide the source
code, apparently under the impression that you could just port a game
with a retail copy, so Heineman had to get a copy of the Jaguar source
code off of Id as a starting point. Randy Scott is one of the worst
producers in the history of the world.
Obviously the port
did not come out well but the end result makes for one of the most
legendary stories of Heineman's career. She also managed to get Scott
off her case by talking him into recording new remixes of the game's
music, since there was no way she was going to write an audio driver on
top of everything else.
Source code on github
Interview with Rebecca Heineman on Bad Game Hall of Fame
Burgertime 7/12/2015: DOOM 3DO: Rebecca Heineman talking about how DOOM 3DO came to be (YouTube)
Doom 3DO: Or How I Survived Hell, a 2022 talk by Rebecca Heineman at Vintage Computer Federation (YouTube)
DOOM (2001, GBA)
Oh hey it's DOOM again. This port credits Jennell Jaquays as a level
designer, and sure enough the game DOES have a few multiplayer maps
that don't exist on any other port, so I guess she did some of those?
Dragon Wars (1989, Various home computers)
Developed by Rebecca Heineman. Originally intended as a Bard's Quest game but rights issues got in the way
Dragon's Lair (GBC, 2000)
Handheld demake of the FMV-heavy laserdisc classic, squeezed onto a 4
megabyte Game Boy cartridge. The lead programmer of this port was
Cathryn Mataga, who worked on coding the game, and compressing the data
to fit on a single relatively tiny cartridge (even the excellent Amiga
port spanned six disks about a meg each)
"I give Cathryn Mataga, our lead engineer, a lot of credit here... She
found ways to make things compress that went above and beyond
conventional techniques."
- Mike Mika
Time Extension article about the making of
Elite (C64)
Sophie Wilson once declared that "Elite is the program that couldn't
been written" in response to the game's release on the computer she had
helped design, the BBC Micro. Other ports shortly followed, including
one for
the C64. The task of providing this version of the game's music went to
Julie Dunn, who
ported Aidan Bell's fanfare theme into the game, along with a beautiful
SID chip rendition of The Blue Danube.
Listen to Julie Dunn's take on Blue Danube here it's so good holy shit!!
Enter The Matrix (2003, PS2, Gamecube, Xbox, PC)
Written and directed by Lilly and Lana Wachowski, as a companion piece
to the Matrix Sequels. Ties together scenes from Animatrix and Matrix
Reloaded, and features FMV scenes filmed alongside the movies using the
same cast and crew.
Escape From Paradise (1987, C64)
Music by Julie Dunn
Essex (1985, Apple II)
Text adventure created using Cathryn Mataga's BTZ engine
F(L)ail (2008, PC)
One of Maddy Thorson's Trans-People-Can-Double-Jump platformers. Honestly I didn't realise how many of these she had done.
Fallout (1997, Mac)
Rebecca Heineman managed the Mac port, and is one of the coders who kept a copy of the source code.
Fallout 1 and 2's source code isn't lost after all, thanks to one hero programmer: 'I made it a quest to snapshot everything' - PC Gamer article
Burgertime! 5/9/2025 Fallout Source - Becky's own account clarifying reports about her keeping the source code.
Fallout 2 (1998, Mac)
Burger Becky did the mac port of this one too. See above.
Fifa 96 (2004, Jakks-Pacific)
"Fifa 96 in 2004? Jakks-Pacific? You're not making sense, woman!" you
might be saying. Well here we go anyway! Okay so Jakks Pacific is a toy
company better known for...well, their toys, but they also did a line
of Plug & Play TV games. You know the ones, where it's basically a
controller that plugs directly into your TV input and it's usually got
a bunch of ROMs on it or something? Well that's what this is, except
it's not quite an emulation, but rather a port of the Sega Mega Drive
version of Fifa 96 to a little bit of bespoke hardware stored inside a
controller that looks a little bit like a Mega Drive controller.
Cathryn Mataga did the porting, so that means I get to talk about this.
Hooray.
Finders Keepers (1985, C64)
Music by Julie Dunn.
Fire Truck (1978, Arcade)
Wendi Allen followed up her first game, Super Bug, by elaborating on
the premise. This time, instead of one player, two players would
control the front and back of a fire engine, with both co-operating to
avoid a collision, and covering as much distance as they can within the
time limit.
Flight Path 737 (1984, C64)
Flight sim for the C64. The music was Julie Dunn's first job doing music for games.
"It was a tune I'd originally written in 1975; I'd found that using the
ADSR on a saw channel gave the bass riff an echoey effect, and two
pulses slightly detuned from each other played the main theme. I was
hired!"
The Fourth Protocol (1985, C64)
Based off a Cold War thriller novel. Features music by Julie Dunn which
she had originally written as a carol for a school choir.
Garfield and his Nine Lives (2006, GBA)
Fairly standard licensed platformer for the Game Boy Advance. One of the two programmers was Cathryn Mataga
Gateway to the Savage Frontier (1991, C64, Amiga)
Cathrn Mataga was one of the encounter authors, and also she programmed the Amiga version
Ghostbusters - The Video Game (2009, Xbox 360, PS3)
A licenced Ghostbusters game featuring pretty much all of the original
cast. Generally held in high enough regard for people to consider it a
worthy follow-up to the original movies. One of the game designers was
Emilia Schatz
Gilligan's Gold (1984, C64)
Music by Julie Dunn
Global Conquest (1992, PC)
By Danielle Bunten Berry
Goldeneye Rogue Agent (2004, Gamecube, PS2, Xbox)
One of a few console FPSes Rebecca Heineman had a hand in during her
time at EA. She provided "additional engineering" according to the
credits
Gorf (1981, Arcade)
Probably the best known of Jamie Fenton's games. Following a round of
shooting down the Space Invaders, the player goes to space and takes
the fight to the enemy Gorfian commander, who mocks the player with a
synthesized voice. Unlike contemporary space shooters of the time, the
player could move sideways AND up and down, and the game had multiple
stages, each with slightly different gameplay. A sequel game, Ms Gorf,
was almost completed by Fenton, but ultimately cancelled when the
American games industry crashed.
Grand Theft Auto Advance (2004, GBA)
Programmed by Cathryn Mataga. An original game in the GTA series with
the same setting as the PS2 GTA games but with the top-down styles of
DMA's earlier GTAs. Includes much of the visual style that made those
games stand out, including the 3D buildings, but also includes features
from the later games, such as the ability to flip cars over, causing
them to explode.
Guitar Hero (2005, PS2)
You know, I figured there was absolutely NO goddamn way this game had a
100% cis setlist, but I wasn't about to go out there and transvestigate
every single artist who contributed music to this game. Luckily it
turns out other people know Cool Stuff which gets shared with me
sometimes.
So anyways, Guitar Hero features a hidden track, Trippolette, by Andi
Buch, one of the playtesters. It was cut at the last minute but is
unlockable by cheat codes. Accounts vary on whether it was ever meant
to be there in the first place.
Trippolette - Andi Buch's own account on the hidden song, and the Gameshark codes required to unlock it.
Gumball (1983, Apple II)
By Veda Hlubinka-Cook.
Halo Wars (2009, Xbox 360)
Jennell Jaquays was one of the artists, working on "the art side of multiplayer map creation".
Heart of Africa (1985, C64)
By Danielle Bunten Berry.
High Noon (1984, C64)
Shooty Cowboy game for the C64. You shoot outlaws, and the undertaker
carries off the bodies. Julie Dunn provides a bouncy SID cover of the
High Noon TV theme.
Hyper Biker (1984, C64)
Music by Julie Dunn.
I Wanna Be The Guy (2007, PC)
With a name like that you'd think The Kid from I Wanna Be The Guy ought
to be some kinda transmasc icon, and I suppose he kinda probably is to
some very cool guy out there. But yeah, Kayin is genderfluid, so I get
to talk about her classic little bit of homemade internet bastardry
here.
Playable here
International Rugby Simulator (1988, C64)
Music by Julie Dunn.
International Speedway (1988, C64)
Music by Julie Dunn.
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings, Volume I (1990, DOS, Amiga)
Whew, there's a handful of a title. One of the designers for this was
Jennell Jaquays. It just so happens that this was the one game she
worked on for Interplay, which it just so happens is where Rebecca
Heineman worked at the time. Given that the two of them would later
marry, this feels like quite a cute coincidence.
Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (1999, Mac)
Ported to the mac by Rebecca Heineman.
Jet Bike Simulator (1988, C64)
Music by Julie Dunn.
Jump Jet (1985, C64)
Music by Julie Dunn.
Jumper (2004, PC)
Not gonna lie I did NOT realise how long Maddy Thorson had been
doing Trans-People-Can-Double-Jump Platformers before making this list.
Like, I thought that Celeste was primarily her drawing from the twitchy
platformer style of Super Meat Boy but as it turns out, lmao nope Not
only does Jumper predate Meat Boy by sevaral years, but the lead
character, Ogmo, went on to appear as a playable character in Super
Meat Boy, acknowledging the influence that game had taken from
Thorson's work. Like, I fully had the order of cause and effect
completely wrong here.
Downloadable for free from Maddy Thorson's website
Jumper Two (2005, PC)
by Maddy Thorson.
Jumper Three (2008, PC)
by Maddy Thorson.
Karateka (1985, C64, Atari 8-bit)
Veda Hlubinka-Cook ported the game from the original Apple II to the
Commodore 64 and the Atari 800. Both ports are held in high regard due
to improvements that could be made to the game on the relatively newer
hardware.
The Making of Karateka
- An interactive documentary by Digital Eclipse featuring emulated
versions of both of Cook's ports, as well as interviews and archived
correspondence between her and Jordan Mechner.
Killing Time (1996, PC)
When I saw that Killing Time was an original FPS for the 3DO which had
Rebecca Heineman's name on it, I figured this would be something she
coded from scratch after cutting her teeth on multiple other FPSes on
the system. As it turns out, it's actually ironically enough a port
FROM the 3DO that she worked on, TO the PC.
Kingdom - The Far Reaches (1995, PC)
This is a port of Thayer's Quest, an unsuccessful Laserdisc game that
never really got the love it deserved until Hbomberguy did a video
about it. Years after its original non-release on the unreleased
Halcyon gaming system, it would receive a re-release on the PC, coded
by Rebecca Heineman
Kingdom Hearts (2002, PS2)
Japanese pop singer Utada composed and performed the theme song,
Hikari/Simple and Clean, both in Japanese and English. They would
return for both sequels.
Kingdom Hearts 2 (2005, PS2)
Utada returned to the series with another single, which they wrote and
sang in Japanese under the title Passion, and in English as Sanctuary.
Kromazone (1987, C64)
Music by Julie Dunn
Lady Sword (1989, PC Engine)
Dungeon-crawler RPG written by Megu-Tan
Las Vegas (1984, C64)
Music by Julie Dunn
Last Express (1997, PC)
Veda Hlubinka Cook is the game's technical director. She also makes a cameo appearence as a porter.
Life (1982, Bally Astrocade)
Conway's Game of Life, but coded in Bally Basic by Jamie Fenton
Lunar Lander (1978, Arcade)
The first of Atari's vector arcade games, using a vector graphics
engine designed by Wendi Allen, who also co-designed this game.
M.U.L.E. (1983, Atari 8-bit, lots of other things)
This
is the game everyone knows Danielle Bunten Berry for so I'm kinda
kicking myself for not really knowing much about it. It's like a
multiplayer sci-fi economics game or something.
Magic Madness (1987, C64)
Julie Dunn does a sweet cover of The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Magnetron (1988, C64)
by Cathryn Mataga
The Matrix Online (2005, PC)
MMORPG
set in the world of The Matrix. Set after the original movie trilogy,
with story elements written by The Wachowski Sisters.
The Matrix - Path of Neo (2005, PS2, Xbox, PC)
Written and Directed by Lilly and Lana Wachowski, retelling the
original Matrix trilogy as a videogame. The Wachowskis make a cameo
appearence towards the end, explaining the challenges of making the
climax of The Matrix Revolutions work as the final boss battle of the
game.
Medal of Honor: European Assault (2005, Gamecube, PS2, Xbox)
One of the FPS titles Rebecca Heineman did engine work on during her
stint at EA. Also, from what I can tell, the first game where she
managed to get her real name into the credits. Hooray! Apparently EA's
policy for supporting trans staff was pretty solid at the time, and
once someone else at the company came out, and she knew that the
company would take her side if anyone tried to give her shit about it,
Heineman felt pretty secure following suit, and so "Burger" Becky Heineman got her first credit as such.
Medal of Honor: Rising Sun (2003, PS2, Xbox, Gamecube)
One of the FPS titles Rebecca Heineman did engine work on during her stint at EA.
Mighty Jill Off (2008, PC)
Retro style difficulty is often described as sadistic, and Anna
Anthropy decided to take that literally in its horny sense in this
kinky lesbian take on Mighty Bomb Jack's style of platforming, in which
she as game designer effectively takes the role of the sadistic dom
with you the player as her masochistic sub. As Jill, you are thrown to
the bottom of the tower by your trans lesbian Queen and must reach the
top of the tower to lick her boots once again.
Oh, and Jill's an unlockable character in Super Meat Boy. I swear that
entire game is just made entirely out of Stolen Trans Valour.
The game received something of a resurgence in 2024 when screenshots
did the rounds on twitter, but was very quickly Milkshake Ducked when
Anthropy's ex came forward saying that the game was based on their
relationship at the time which in hindsight was maybe not the healthiest.
Playable via Itch.io
Mindwheel (1984, Apple II)
Text adventure created using Cathryn Mataga's BTZ engine
Modem Wars (1988, C64, PC)
Online RTS by Danielle Bunten Berry
Moneyseize (2009, PC)
by Maddy Thorson
Ms Gorf (Unreleased, Arcade)
A sequel to Gorf that Jamie Fenton had in the works, and which was
pretty much done, but then the American games industry crashed before
she could finish it, forcing her to move on to greener pastures. There
exists one video of her playing an early version though which is
extremely cool, and apparently she still has the original code stored
away on a disk somewhere so who knows.
Before The Bubble Burst - clip from a documentary showing some of the only known gameplay footage, and an old interview with Jamie Fenton.
Muntant Rampage: Bodyslam (1994, Phillips CDI)
It's...A MUTANT. Side-scrolling beat-em-up for the CDI, primarily
notable for featuring animation by Animation Magic studios. If that
name sounds familiar, it's probably because they were the studio who
did the absolutely unhinged animation on the CDI Zelda games and I.M.
Meen. In this, they provide the animation for the game's bizarre cast
of bionic samurai and weird horny cat things. For our purposes, it's
notable in that the voice of L. Wolf Jam, the announcer between stages,
is that of Maddie Blaustein, in her first voice acting gig.
Compilation of FMVs
Name That Tune (1986, Arcade)
An arcade quiz game that plays chiptune clips of pop songs and gives
the player Multiple Choice answers as to what that tune could be. Wendi
Allen is credited for "hardware wizardry"
Neuromancer (1988, C64, Apple II, PC)
Computer game adaptation of the Cyberpunk classic, made to tie-in with
a movie that never got made. Rebecca Heineman worked on the game as one
of the coders. Amongst other things, she processed DEVO's "Some Things
Never Change" to play as an 8-bit sample on the C64 hardware, and
coded "FASTDOS", which loaded data off the disk faster. She also ported
the Apple II and Apple II GS versions of the game.
Playthrough of the DOS version with commentary by Rebecca Heineman
Neverwinter Nights (1991, DOS)
programmed by Cathryn Mataga
"Lead programmer on Neverwinter
Nights for AOL. One of the early MMRPG's, and maybe the first with
boxed-game quality graphics. I'm not really sure myself what was first
with what really. This started as a contract for Beyond
Software/Stormfront Studios, but the update was done as an employee."
- from Cathryn Mataga's linkdin
Night Racer (1988, C64)
Music by Julie Dunn
Noddy: A Day in Toyland (2006, GBA)
Programming by Cathryn Mataga
Nonterraqueous (1985, C64)
Music by Julie Dunn.
Nuke The @&#%$★ (1983, Bally Astrocade)
By Jamie Fenton
Pac-Man (1983, Colecovision)
Ported by Jennell Jaquays
PC Fuzz (1984, C64)
Autoscroller
where you play as a policeman and stop people from robbing shops. Has
an absolutely DELIGHTFUL theme tune by Julie Dunn
Gameplay footage
Pirates of the Burning Sea (2008, PC)
Lead designer: Kiva Maginn
Pitfall: The Lost Expedition (2004, Gamecube, PS2, Xbox)
There's a secret area where you can play the original Atari 2600
version on an in-game Atari 2600 and TV screen. Burger Becky did the
emulator. Probably the same emulator she wrote for Activision Anthology.
Pokémon Channel (2003, Gamecube)
Uses the same voice cast as the cartoon, meaning that Maddie Blaustein
provides the voice for multiple Pokémon, including of course Meowth.
Article in The Advocate about Blaustein coming out as trans while working on Pokemon (archived on The Free Library)
Pokemon Puzzle League (2000, N64)
Maddie Blaustein reprises voices from the cartoon, including Meowth, Alakazam and Lt. Surge.
Pokemon Snap (1999, N64)
There's a wild Meowth in the first stage, voiced by Maddie Blaustein.
Pokemon Stadium (1999, N64)
The absolute goddamn peak of Maddie Blaustein's voice acting career!
She voiced the Magikarp in the minigame where a bunch of Magikarp jump
to hit a counter and yell "KAAAAARP". Honestly you don't even need the
rest of the list, this is the absolute peak of trans contributions to
videogames. Maddie Blaustein did a bunch of Magikarp noises. Everything
else is just filler.
Power Boat Race (1984, C64)
Music by Julie Dunn
Prince of Persia (1989, Apple II, SNES, pretty much everything really)
Veda Hlubinka-Cook provided the model footage of the Vizier, which was
rotoscoped over to animate the villain in cutscenes. She also pitched
the idea that the Shadow Prince, the antagonistic clone of the player
who causes trouble in the latter half of the game, should emerge from a
mirror.
And the trans dev involvement doesn't even end with the original
version. The SNES version, which expands the game radically, adding new
areas and boss fights, was programmed by Kotori Yoshimura.
Prodigy (1986, C64)
Music by Julie Dunn
Quake II (1997, PC)
Jennell Jaquays did level design on Quake 2, doing a bonus stage near
the beginning and a full chapter towards the end of the game. The 2023
remaster by Night Dive went to the trouble of updating her credit in the secret dev room, which is pretty cool.
Quake III Arena (1999, PC)
Jennell Jaquays was a lead level designer on this one.
Quiz Tokou Shashin (1994, PC Engine)
I mean, you didn't think the entire list would be utterly devoid of
smut, did you? So this is a quiz game. You answer the questions right,
you gradually remove the tiles off a drawing of a naked cartoon girl.
Created by Megu-Tan, who coded the game using the engine she had
previously coded for Lady Sword.
Radical Psycho Machine Racing (1991, SNES)
Programming
and audio by Rebecca Heineman. One of the very few SNES games to use
Mode 5 (the hi-res screen mode) and possibly the only game to use it
throughout the entire game.
Super NES Works - RPM Racing (YouTube)
Rampage 2: Universal Tour (1999, GBC)
Handheld port of the console sequel to the arcade classic. Programmed by Cathryn Matage
Rayman Advance (2001, GBA, DSi)
Two excellent ports of the original Jaguar game. Lead programmer: Cathryn Mataga
Re-Mission (2006, PC)
A
third-person shooter game designed for young cancer patients.
Apparently it was really good at educating and motivating young cancer
patients, which overall improved outcomes and helped them
survive. One of the level designers was Emilia Schatz.
Video essay about Re-Mission by youtuber Alien Bob
Remington Top Shot: Interactive Target Shoot (1998, PC, Mac)
Lead programmer: Rebecca Heineman
Rescue Rover (1991, Apple II GS)
Apparently Rebecca Heineman did the Apple II GS version, which would make it her first gig for Id software
Ring Master (1985, C64)
Circus music by Julie Dunn
Robot Rascals (1986, Apple II, C64, DOS)
By Danielle Bunten Berry
Rock Band (2007, Xbox 360)
Downloadable content released within the time window I've given us includes tracks by Against Me and Andi Buch.
The Rocky Horror Show (1985, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, C64, ZX Spectrum)
Based on the musical by Richard O'Brien
Rocky Interactive Horror Show (1999, Dolor)
Based on the musical by Richard O'Brien, who is also in the game.
Runman: Race Around The World (2009, PC)
Co-designed by Maddy Thorson.
Seven Cities of Gold (1984, Atari 8-Bit)
by Danielle Bunten Berry
Shadow The Hedgehog (2005, Gamecube, PS2, Xbox)
Maddie Blaustein's in it as the voice of the president.
Also, I Am All Of Me is a trans anthem now. It just is! Fuck you!
Shamus (1982, Atari 800)
By Cathryn Mataga
Snap Dragon (1986, C64)
Music by Julie Dunn. Also released as Karate Chop
Sonic Riders (2006, Gamecube, PS2, Xbox)
Maddie Blaustein voices Babylon Guardian, the game's final boss, and the robots E-10000G and E-10000R.
Sonic The Hedgehog (2006, PS3, Xbox 360)
Maddie Blaustein provides the voice of E-123 Omega.
Soul Gem of Martek (1985 sort of, C64)
Unreleased game with music by Julie Dunn
Space Shuttle: A Journey Into Space (1983, Atari 2600)
Space
shuttle flight simulator by Jessica Stevens. Designed to simulate
a flight of an American Space Shuttle as accurately as possible, from
takeoff, to docking, to landing. Uses the hardware in really
interesting ways. The various game mode switches on the 2600 console
itself are used as additional switches on the control panel of the
shuttle. There's even a physical overlay that shows what they all do
Space Hunter (1985, C64)
Julie Dunn
does a really good SID cover of Deibles' Coppelia, Tableau 1: No. 1
Valse for this. I swear to god trans people doing really good synth
covers of classical music is a bit of a stereotype.
Spider-Man: The Movie (2002, GBA)
Licensed tie-in game with the first of the Tobey McGuire Spider-Man movies. Programmed by Cathryn Mataga
Spider-Man 2 (2004, N-Gage)
The 2D bits were coded by Cathryn Mataga
The Spiderwick Chrionicles (2007, Nintendo DS)
Lead programmer: Cathryn Mataga
Star Cruiser (1988, PC-88, Sega Mega Drive)
Space sim with FPS and RPG elements by Kotori Yoshimura.
Star Trek - The Rebel Universe (1989, C64)
Julie Dunn has an absolutely solid shot at SIDifying the original Star Trek theme.
Stronghold (1993, PC)
Cathryn Mataga was one of the designers, and also the programmer.
Super 3D Noah's Ark (1994, SNES)
You wouldn't think Wisdom Tree's weird Christian Wolf 3D Knockoff for the SNES
would be on this list, but the key thing here is that the game is made
using the SNES Wolfenstein 3D engine, which as we shall later
establish, is a bit of a mess but we DO know that the sound driver is
Rebecca Heineman's, and that makes it over to this conversion.
Super Bug (1977, Arcade)
Wendi Allen's first game at Atari. Quite possiby the first ever game to
feature scrolling background graphics. A top-down driving game where
you drive as great a distance as possible on your limited fuel tank
(time, basically). A little yellow overlay in the middle of the
monochrome screen pulls the double duty of making the car yellow and
creating a little yellow explosion in the centre of your crash.
Tass Times in Tone Town (1986, C64, Apple II, Apple II GS)
The first game released on the Apple II GS. Programmed by Rebecca Heineman.
Tempest 2000 (1998, Mac)
"Additional Libraries" for the Mac version by Rebecca Heineman
Thai Boxing (1986, C64)
Music by Julie Dunn
Theater Europe (1985, C64)
Cheekily enough, the title theme for this War Games simulator is Give Peace A Chance, or rather a SID cover by Julie Dunn.
Thunder Force (1983, Sharp X1)
Programmed by Kotori Yoshimura
Track Meet (1991, Game Boy)
One of Rebecca Heineman's projects "from hell". Intended to be a launch
title for the Game Boy, as a decathlon game much like those seen on the
Speccy. Unfortunately for Becky, an alarming amount of feature creep
brought on by the desire to stand out from other decathlon games led to
her being stuck trying to get this one game working for a year, as her
bosses kept asking her to add big sprites like in Punch Out, or a
random ninja because ninjas. She programmed the game, wrote the music
driver, and repeatedly had to beg for extra cart space to meet the
demands being piled on her. Ultimately the game did sell through its
inventory.
Burgertime 9/6/2015: Track Meet Gameboy - YouTube link
The Trap Door (1986, C64)
Theme tune covered by Julie Dunn
Treasures of the Savage Frontier (1992, Amiga, PC)
Programming and technical design by Cathryn Mataga
Tron (1982, Arcade)
Based off the Disney movie, and contains chiptune renditions of some of Wendy Carlos's original soundtrack
Clip of arcade music
(Because of the in-game time limit you never actually get to hear this
all the way through but it's a pretty spot-on rendition of the original music)
Tron 2.0 (2003, PC)
Tron 2.0 featured an original soundtrack that builds on Wendy Carlos's
original soundtrack for the movie. At several points the music quotes
her work directly.
Tropical Fever (1984, C64)
Music by Julie Dunn
Ultima (1994, Apple II GS)
The classic RPG got an Apple II GS port by Rebecca Heineman
Ultima Online (1997, PC)
Jessica Mulligan was "In charge of in-game events and the volunteer organizations"
An Untitled Story (2007, PC)
"You're an egg" declares the tagline of Maddy Thorson's Metroidvania
platformer in which, sure enough, you play as an egg. I don't even need
to make the obvious trans joke here, do I?
Downloadable for free from Maddy Thorson's website
Uprising 2: Lead and Destroy (1998, PC)
Cathryn Mataga coded the multiplayer
Valkyrie Profile (1999, Playstation)
Multiple characters voiced by Maddie Blaustein
Virtual Lab (1995, Virtual Boy)
Puzzle game developed by Megu-Tan in one week right at the end of the
Virtual Boy's short lifespan. Only used the 3D capabilities of the
system to give an extra pop to the mascot character's breasts (an
idealized self-inset of herself). The actual game is a falling block
puzzle where the falling blocks are bits of pathway that you have to
drop in such a way that they form closed loops.
Interview with Megu-Tan (Bad Game Hall of Fame)
Walk Wan (1982, Sharp MZ-2000)
A
game about trying to go on a date while also walking an unruly dog. You
have to reach your destination on time while your dog attempts to chase
cats, shit on the road, and get you in trouble with the Yakuza by
barging through houses they own. Created by Kotori Yoshimura
Warsport (1997, PC)
Danielle Bunten Berry's final game. Pretty much lost media now that the servers that ran it are gone.
Wheeler Dealers (1978, Apple II)
Some kind of Stock Market simulation game by Danielle Bunten Berry.
First known computer game to be sold in an actual box, complete with
instruction manual and a custom four-button controller so that four
players could Press Button and Do Stonks. it sold a grand total of 50
copies, and was considered Lost Media until a copy was recovered in
2023.
Playable on archive.org
Wolfenstein 3D (1993, SNES*, Apple II GS, Mac, 3DO)
Oh boy, there's some drama here for sure. So there's varying reports as
to how involved Rebecca Heineman was with this one. The way she tells
it she worked with Id on the SNES port before doing the other versions
herself, but John Romero's account is a bit messier. The way he tells
it, Id outsourced the job of porting the SNES version to Becky as a
freelance gig, but then after months of not hearing anything found out
that there were contractural issues meaning that any freelance work she
did while at Interplay would belong to Interplay. Id would then simply
pay off Interplay and do the port themselves (at least one account
involves the Id team drawing up a caricature of Becky's face, sticking
it to a chair, and murdering the chair). Meanwhile, Heineman would
leave Interplay and co-found the company Logicware. At the end of the
day, the finished port DOES still contain some of Heineman's work. The
sound driver is an improvement on the one she wrote for RPM Racing.
Interplay still ended up with the rights to do a few ports
themselves, which Heineman worked on in Logicware, and very solid ports
they
were too. This would hardly be the last time Becky's name was attatched
to a difficult Id Software FPS port, which you'll already know if
you've been reading these in alphabetical order.
X-Men - Reign of Apocalypse (2001, GBA)
Additional programming: Cathryn Mataga
Zeppelin (1983, Atari 8-Bit, C64)
By Cathryn Mataga
Zeta-7 (1984, C64)
Music by Julie Dunn
Zodiac (1984, C64)
Music by Julie Dunn
website by dot maetrix, 2025
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Coakes, Euan O'Leary, Liffy, Oceanity, Primiera, Sharleen, and Sphinx
of Black Quartz.
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