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)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1981, PC-80)
Loose adaptation of the movie in which you have to shut down HAL-9000's
mind unit by unplugging the relevant parts of his mind from the ship
(much like in the movie) and avoiding the deadly lasers he fires at you
(less like in the movie)
Game by Kotori Yoshimura
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
Afterlife (PC, 1996)
According to the manual, everyone involved in the game's audio
production is going to the sixth circle of hell, and so for their work
as voice editor, Khris Brown will be joining all the heretics in the
City of Dis. Lucky them.
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.
Apocalypse Abyss (1994, PC)
By Alexis Janson, who did basically everything.
Armored Police Metal Jack (1992, Game Boy)
Strategic Battle game based on an anime series about a squad of
Robocops. Megu-Tan, best known for creating Virtual Lab on the Virtual
Boy, worked on this as a sprite editor and QA tester.
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
Autotest (1990, C64)
Coded by Patricia Curtis
Ballblazer Champions (1997, PSX)
Voice editor: Khris Brown
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
Battle Zeque Den (1994, SNES)
Kotori Yoshimura was one of the programmers
Battlestar Galactica (2003, PS2, Xbox)
Original story by renowned comics writer Grant Morrison.
Battlezone (1980, Arcade)
Created using Wendi Allen's vector graphics engine
Bloodrayne 2 (2004, Gamecube, PS2, Xbox)
Level design by Emilia Schatz
Blocks From Hell (1992, PC)
Relatively straightforward Tetris clone by Toren K. Smith. Populated a
lot of freeware compilations back in the day. Ran on pretty much any PC
and took up a grand total of 14k of disk space.
Playable on the Internet Archive
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
Borrowed Time (1985, Apple II, C64)
Programmed by Rebecca Heineman.
For some reason, the game features multiple easter egg references to
Brian Fargo decapitating Rebecca Heineman with an axe. This seems
normal..
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
Brütal Legend (2009, PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
Voice casting and direction: Khris Brown
Call of Duty: United Offensive (2004, PC)
Expansion pack for the original Call of Duty. Nixxi Mohilchock did
level design for much of the Soviet campagn, as well as some
multiplayer maps.
Call of Duty 2: Big Red One (2005, Gamecube, PS2, Xbox)
Nixxi Mohilchock did level design for this one too, specifically the Kasserine, Tunisia stage and its equivalent multiplayer
Call of Duty 3 (2006, PS2, PS3, Xbox, Xbox 360)
Nixxi Mohilchock was primarily responsible for the Mayenne Bridge
campaign level, and some multiplayer levels. She also did lighting
design across several more levels.
Caper in the Castro (1989, Mac)
Oh hell yes! The ORIGINAL queer video game, By C.M. Ralph
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
Champions Online (2009, PC)
Superhero themed MMORPG which as of 2025 is still going. Kiri Jolly was
on the game as a graphics programmer when the game first shipped, and
tells me that the studio was extremely cool about updating her name in
the credits after she came out.
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.
Chess Mates (1996, PC)
Additional programming by Beth Daggert
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.
Chuck Rock II: Son of Chuck(1993, Sega CD)
Sarah Jane Avory is credited as FMV Programmer
Chuck Yeager's Air Combat (1993, Mac)
Ported by Glenda Adams
Clive Barker's Undying (2002, Mac)
Glenda Adams was a programmer on the Mac port.
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"
Combo Racer (1989, Amiga/Atari ST)
A two-player co-op racing game based specifically on the niche sport of
Sidecar racing, in which the passenger assists the driver by shifting
their weight across the machine to handle corners optimally. Programmed
by Sarah JaneAvory
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
Cubert Badbone, P.I. (2003, PC)
A game by Deitrich Squinkfer
Curse of Babylon (1990, C64)
Originally a game for the PC-88, the C64 version was coded by Cathryn Mataga
Curse of Monkey Island (1997, PC)
Senior voice editor: Khris Brown
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
DanceDanceRevolution (2006, Arcade and various consoles)
Jamie Thompson has composed and arranged tunes appearing in various DDR
titles, starting I *think* in DDR ULTRAMIX4 in 2006 but honestly the
setlists are so overwhelming I can't keep track of them.
Here's one of the tracks she worked on
Day of the Tentacle (1992, PC)
Khris Brown is in the credits as Product Support Manager and Catering.
For some reason their mobygames page just lists Catering. Rude!
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
Deus Ex (2000, Mac)
Glenda Adams provided additional programming for the mac port. Her
programming is augmented. Even still, according to the Deus Ex wiki
it's kind of a limited number of Macs that can run this version, namely
OS 9 and OS X in "Classic" mode
The Dig (1996, PC)
Voice editor, Khris Brown. Presumably a job they had to do twice as
well because I DEFINITELY remember the demo having a different voice
cast from the finished game.
On a completely unrelated note, Lunar Lander is playable as a minigame on Commander Low's PDA. How's about that?
Dinosaur (2000, GBC)
Programmed by Cathryn Mataga
Discworld (1995, PC, Mac, PSX, Saturn)
Dialog by Pauli Kidd
Discworld 2: Mortality Bytes (1996, PC)
Dialog by Pauli Kidd. She also wrote the strategy guide.
Doc the Destroyer (1987, C64, ZX Spectrum)
Designed by Pauli Kidd, this is basically a multi-choice Choose-Your-Own-Adventure game with some fighting built in.
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 Dive (2003, Gamecube)
Kotori Yoshimura was one of the programmers
Dragon's Lair (2000, GBC)
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
Duke Nukem 3D (1997, Mac)
With how much Duke has been kinda reclaimed as a bit of a queer icon
recently, it's ESPECIALLY delightful to be able to put him on the list.
The mac port is one of Glenda Adams's, it's based off the Atomic
Edition so it's got all the fourth episode and such gubbins from that.
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
Everquest (2003, Mac)
Mac port of Everquest, including the first four expansions. Glenda Adams was one of the programmers who ported this version.
This version of the game was seperate from the PC version, and had its
own dedicated server world. When the PC version was repeatedly upgraded
and expanded, the Mac version just kinda remained how it was. It ended
up getting its own dedicated fanbase who appreciated it as an official
"Classic" version of Everquest by people who preferred the game in its
earliest stages. At least until 2012 when it was shut down.
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin (2008, PC, PS3, X360)
Nixxi Mohilchock was responsible for two story missions towards the end of the game, namely "Keegan" and "Approach"
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.
Fighting Force (1997, Playstation)
Programmed by Sarah Jane Avory
Fighting Force 2 (1999, Playstation)
Programmed by Sarah Jane Avory
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!"
Flight Unlimited (1996, Mac)
Glenda Adams was a programmer on the mac port
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.
From Russia With Love (2005, Gamecube, PS2, Xbox)
Casting services: Khris Brown
Full Throttle (1995, PC)
Voice editor and production co-ordinator: Khris Brown
:the game: (2008, PC)
Old Newgrounds flash game by Nicky Case. Effectively it's "You have Two
Cows" but with fewer cows and more jumping off a platform and falling
to your death.
Still playable on Newgrounds
Reflecting on :the game: - a blog post by Nicky Case
REPLAYING :the game: (2009, PC)
Nicky Case's sequel to her previous fountain of Newgrounds memes. More platforms! More falling!
Also still playable on Newgrounds
The Game That Takes Place on a Cruise Ship (2006, PC)
Written, directed and programmed by Dietrich Squinkifer
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
Gemini Wing (1989, Amiga)
An Amiga port of the Atari ST port of the arcade game, ported by Sarah Jane Avory
George Foreman's KO Boxing (1992, SNES)
I couldn't say who she played, but Pauli Kidd is in the game's credits for voice acting.
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
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (Xbox 360)
Voiceover director was Khris Brown. I distinctly remember seeing an article
at the time about how the game was going to feature characters yelling
"Porkchop Sandwiches!" in reference to Fenslerfilm's comedic dubs, but
it never got past Hasbro's lawyers. I can only assume that must have
been some....interesting recording sessions.
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.
Grim Fandango (1998, PC)
Senior voice editor: Khris Brown
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.
Guitar Hero - Van Halen (2009, PS2, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360)
Voice casting and production for crowd noises, Khris Brown
Gumball (1983, Apple II)
By Veda Hlubinka-Cook.
Happiest Days of your Life (1986, C64)
Ported from the Speccy version by Patricia Curtis. Her first gig. According to her blog post talking about her old work, she was given eight weeks to port it and it took ten
H*rry P*tter and the Philosopher's Stone (2002, Mac)
I was afraid of this. This was one of Glenda Adams's Mac ports. It's
ironic that some small part of JK Rowling's fortune was made off the
labour of trans people.
H*rry P*tter and the Chamber of Secrets (2003, Mac)
Videogame adaptation of the magical tale in which a boy repeatedly
sneaks into the girls' toilets and gets his snake out. Ported by Glenda
Adams. It was a different time, we didn't know better!
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.
Herc's Adventures (1997, PSX)
Senior voice editor, Khris Brown
HeXen II (199)
Ported by Rebecca Heineman
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.
Jaguar XJ220 (1992, Amiga, Sega CD)
Design and coding by Sarah Jane AvoryJazz Jackrabbit 2 (1999, Mac)
Ported to the mac by Rebecca Heineman.
Jeopardy (2000, Mac)
Glenda Adams ported the Mac version from the Windows game by Artech. She also ported the 2nd Edition a couple of years later
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.
Kane & Lynch - Dead Men (2007, PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
Voice casting and direction: Khris Brown
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.
Knight Arms: The Hyblid Framer (1989, Sharp X68000)
Giant Shooty Robot game which transitions near seamlessly between Space
Harrier type 3D shmup bits and 2D shmup bits. Even in the 2D bits
there's a 3D twist as enemies in the parralax background can shoot you
and be shot back at.
Designed and programmed by Kotori Yoshimura.
Kromazone (1987, C64)
Music by Julie Dunn
Labyrinth of Zeux (1993, PC)
Shareware platformer with ASCII-type graphics. By Alexis Janson, who would create MegaZeux shortly after
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
Links Pro (1994, Mac)
Ported by Glenda Adams
Lode Runner: The Legend Returns (1994, PC)
Engine and Windows programming by Beth Daggert
Lode Runner Online: The Mad Monk's Revenge (1995, PC)
Design by Beth Daggert
Lord of the Rings: Game One (1985, ZX Spectrum)
Text adventure. Pauli Kidd worked on the script.
The Shadows of Mordor: Game Two of Lord of the Rings (1987, ZX Spectrum)
Sequel to the first Lord of the Rings game on the Speccy and others,
apparently titled specifically to troll people who like to keep related
titles together when they alphabetize their collections. Pauli Kidd
gets the slightly clunky writing credit of "Story line development"
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.
MaBoShi's Arcade (2008, Wii)
Wiiware puzzle game. Kotori Yoshimura worked on it as a programmer.
Madden NFL 2000 (1999, Mac)
Glenda Adams was a programmer on the Mac port
Magic Madness (1987, C64)
Julie Dunn does a sweet cover of The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Magnetron (1988, C64)
by Cathryn Mataga
Marsupilami (1995, Sega Mega Drive)
Produced by Patricia Curtis. Sadly her last game for a while, as she
was shunned by the industry for being trans shortly afterwards.
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.
McDonaldland (C64, 1992)
Platformer based off of everyone's favourite fast food mascots. Patricia Curtis was a coder on it.
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.
Megazeux (1994, PC)
Game creation tool created by Alexis Janson
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
New Legends (2002, Xbox)
Voice producer and director: Khris Brown
Night Racer (1988, C64)
Music by Julie Dunn
Nightshade - Part 1: The Claws of Sutekh (1992, NES)
Part fighting game, part point-and-click adventure. Game design, Pauli Kidd. She's also credited for "poor quality jokes"
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
Omega Boost (1999, PSX)
Kotori Yoshimura was one of the programmers
Outlaws (1997, PC)
Senior voice editor: Khris Brown
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
PGA Tour Golf II (1994, Mac)
Ported by Glenda Adams
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
Predator: Concrete Jungle (2005, PS2, Xbox)
Written by Grant Morrison
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
Psychonauts (2005, PC, Xbox, PS2(but get the PC version))
The Most Excellent Game Psychonauts brought back a lot of the Lucasarts greats, amongst them voice director Khris Brown
The Punisher (1990, NES)
Designed by Pauli Kidd. It's a rail shooter where you play as The Punisher From Comics and you shoot a LOT of people.
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)
Railroad Tycoon II (1999, Mac)
Glenda adams was lead programmer on the Mac port
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, PC)
Based on the musical by Richard O'Brien, who is also in the game.
Rune (2000, Mac)
Glenda Adams ported the Mac version.
Runman: Race Around The World (2009, PC)
Co-designed by Maddy Thorson.
Sam & Max Hit The Road (1993, PC)
AAAAAAA MY CHILDHOOD!
*ahem*
Voice production co-ordination by Khris Brown
Sam & Max Save the World (2006, PC)
Season 1 of Telltale's episodic series. The first three episodes contain choraography by Dietrich Squinkifer
Samurai Warrior: The Battles of Usagi Yojimbo (1988, C64)
Based on the Usagi Yojimbo comics, you play as the titular samurai
rabbit, as he travels the land fighting bandits, righting wrongs, and
living the way of the samurai. Designed by Pauli Kidd, and I gotta say
there is something absolutely delightful about having a Commodore 64
game on here by a transgender furry which itself is based on a comic
series that got its start in a furry anthology.
How A Cult Comic About A Samurai Rabbit Became A Classic Commodore 64 Game - a Time Extension article featuring interviews with Pauli Kidd and the other devs.
Scrabble (2000, Mac)
Ported from the 1999 PC version by Glenda Adams
Scorpius (1988, C64)
Coded by Patricia Curtis, this budget shmup uses some clever tricks to create the illusion of Parralax Scrolling on the C64
Sensible Soccer (1992, CD32)
Both the European Champions version and the International Edition version were ported to CD32 by Patricia Curtis.
Seven Cities of Gold (1984, Atari 8-Bit)
by Danielle Bunten Berry
Shadow Hearts (2001, PS2)
Maddie Blaustein provides the voice of Li Zhuzhen...i think. It doesn't
actually say who she voices in the credits and different sources are
kind of inconsistent on who she actually plays in it.
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!
Shadow Warrior (1997, Mac)
Having ported a BUILD engine title to Mac already with Duke Nukem 3D,
it kinda tracks that Glenda Adams would also be the one to have ported
Shadow Warrior as well.
Shadowrun (1993, SNES)
Based on the cyberpunk TTRPG of the same name, because wherever you
find tabletop games, you are GOING to find trans people. Design by
Pauli Kidd
Shamus (1982, Atari 800)
By Cathryn Mataga
Shellshock (1996, DOS, Playstation, Saturn)
Additional programming by Sarah Jane Avory
Skateboard Joust (1989, C64)
Ported from the Speccy to the C64 by Patricia Curtis
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 Rivals 2 (2007, PSP)
Additional programming by Dietrich Squinkifer
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
Soulstar (1994, Sega CD)
3D shmup. Programmed by Sarah Jane Avory, and she gets a fair amount
out of the hardware. Originally planned for release on the 32X and
Atari Jaguar as well, but neither port panned out.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.
Space Rogue (1989, Mac, PC, Amiga)
Ported by Glenda Adams
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 Cruiser II: The Odysseus Project (1994, PC-98)
Sequel to Star Cruiser, also by Kotori Yoshimura
Star Guard (2009, PC, Mac)
By Loren Schmidt.
Downloadable on itch.io
Star Trek - The Next Generation - Klingon Honor Guard (1999, Mac)
Glenda Adams provided additional programming for the Mac port.
Star Trek - The Rebel Universe (1989, C64)
Julie Dunn has an absolutely solid shot at SIDifying the original Star Trek theme.
Star Wars - Dark Forces (1995, PC)
Voice direction and editing, Khris Brown
Star Wars - Droidworks (1998, PC)
Khris Brown was a voice director on this one too.
Star Wars: Episode 1: The Gungan Frontier (1999, PC)
Programmed by Beth Daggert
Star Wars - Jedi Knight - Dark Forces II (1997, PC)
Voice director and senior voice editor: Khris Brown. They also worked
as senior voice editor on the Mysteries of the Sith expansion.
Star Wars - Masters of Teräs Käsi (1997, PSX)
Let me tell you, in my time playing videogames I've learned to stop
asking such silly questions as "Why does a Star Wars fighting game that
looks like Tekken or something exist?" It just does. And Khris Brown
was the senior voice editor on it.
Star Wars - Rebel Assault 2 - The Hidden Empire (1995, PC)
Voice direction and editing: Khris Brown
Star Wars - Tie Fighter (1994, PC)
Voice direction and editing: Khris Brown
Star Wars - X-Wing (1994, PC)
Khris Brown provided voice production for the CD version.
Star Wars - X-Wing vs Tie Fighter (1997, PC)
Senior voice editor: Khris Brown
Star Wars: Yoda's Challenge (1999, PC)
Additional programming by Beth Daggert
Street Warrior (1989, C64)
£1.99 scrolling beat-em-up coded by Patricia Curtis where you kick people in the shins until they fall over
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.
BS Super Mario USA Power Challenge (1996, SNES with Satellaview add-on)
It's new levels for Super Mario Bros 2, broadcast to your SNES via
satellite along with an accompanying audio drama Soundlink thing. The
Birdos are voiced by trans performers from a Japanese nightclub. If I'm
not mistaken that makes them the first trans people to provide the
voices of trans characters in videogames, and this is like the weirdest
and most brilliant way that could have possibly happened!
A Complete History of Birdo's Gender - from Thrilling Tales of Old Video Games
Super Methane Bros (Amiga, CD32)
Directed by Patricia Curtis. You play as a guy in a gas mask and go around engulfing baddies in clouds of methane gas.
Super Robin Hood (C64, 1987)
Ported from the Speccy to the C64 by Patricia Curtis
System Shock (1995)
Glenda Adams was a programmer on the Mac port
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.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Hero Turtles (Amiga, Atari ST)
Port of Konami's first NES Turtles game. Coded by Patricia Curtis with
a three month deadline. Unlike previous ports she worked on, she
actually got the source code to work with.
Just to confuse matters, the Amiga got TWO ports of NES TMNT, and it's
specifically the UK version we're talking about here, hence the title
being changed to match the censorship of the cartoon in the UK.
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
Thunderhawk (1993, Amiga, Atari ST, Sega CD)
Programmed by Sarah Jane Avory. Also released as Thunderstrike in the USA
Firestorm: Thunderhawk 2 (1995, Playstation)
Programmed by Sarah Jane Avory
Thunderhawk: Operation Phoenix (2001, PS2)
Programmed
by Sarah Jane Avory. I am doing my absolute goddamn best to resist
making any of The Obvious Jokes observing how a trans woman programmed
an entire trilogy of games where you play as an attack helicopter!
Tomb Raider (1999, Mac)
Glenda Adams was a programmer on the Mac port of specifically the Gold
edition of Tomb Raider, which yes, was ported AFTER the sequel.
Tomb Raider II (1998, Mac)
Glenda Adams was a programmer on the Mac port
Tomb Raider III (1999, Mac)
Once again, Glenda Adams was a programmer on the Mac port
Tomb Raider Chronicles (2001, Mac)
Glenda Adams was lead programmer for the Mac version
Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (2003, PS2, PC, Mac)
Sarah Jane Avory was one of the camera system programmers.
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 VI (1990, Amiga, Atari ST, C64, PC, SNES)
One of the writers is Siobhan Beeman
Ultima Online (1997, PC)
Jessica Mulligan was "In charge of in-game events and the volunteer organizations"
Unreal (1998, Mac)
Glenda Adams was one of the programmers on the Mac port
Unreal Tournament (1999, Mac)
Glenda Adams was one of the programmers on the Mac port
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.
Weird Dreams (1990, C64)
Surreal Amiga platformer backported to the C64 by Patricia Curtis.
Weirdness (1996, PC)
MegaZeux game by Alexis Janson
Playableat Digital MZX
Wheel of Fortune (2000, Mac)
Glenda Adams ported the Mac version from the Windows game by Artech. She also ported the 2nd Edition a couple of years later
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
Wing Commander (1990, Amiga, PC, SNES, Sega CD)
Software engineering and dogfight choreography by Siobhan Beeman
Wibarm (1986, PC-88)
A game by Kotori Yoshimura, in which she displays no small amount of
programming witchcraft by having 3D polygonal dungeon crawlery
bits. On home computers. In the mid 80s
Wing Commander II (1991, PC)
Directed by Siobhan Beeman, who also co-wrote it.
Without Warning (2005, PS2, Xbox)
Military shooty game where you're a military shootman who shoots mans. One of the programmers is Sarah Jane Avory
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.
Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire(1990, PC)
Directed by Siobhan Beeman. She also provided programming and worldbuilding.
It's free on GOG
X-Men - Reign of Apocalypse (2001, GBA)
Additional programming: Cathryn Mataga
Xenon 2: Megablast (Sega Mega Drive, CDTV)
Ported from the Amiga original by Patricia Curtis. The CDTV port in
particular makes me giggle because that sure is an abbreviation that
means VERY different things in the Obscure Gaming Console circles and
the trans circles.
Zeppelin (1983, Atari 8-Bit, C64)
By Cathryn Mataga
Zeta-7 (1984, C64)
Music by Julie Dunn
Zodiac (1984, C64)
Music by Julie Dunn
Zyconix (1992, Amiga)
Patricia Curtis pretty much guarantees herself a place at the bottom of
alphabetical sorting by producing this somewhat Klax-like Falling Tiles
puzzle game.
website by dot maetrix, 2025
With thanks to Adamski, Alice, asie, BrattyPhoebe, Category Is Books, Charlene Burbidge, Cherry
Coakes, Dee P. Harrison, Euan O'Leary, Liffy, Khris Brown, Maru Malandra, Nixxi Mohlichock Oceanity, Primiera, Sphinx
of Black Quartz, Video Game King, and probably a whole bunch more that I've failed to mention.
If you like what I'm doing and want to support you can buy me a coffee as a treat <3
You can also find me on fedi
