Back to Home11/18/2025, 11:13:35 PM

Rebecca Heineman – from homelessness to porting Doom (2022)

birdculture

235 points

34 comments

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supportive

Sentiment

positive

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Active discussion

First comment

Peak period

Hour 3

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3.9

Comment distribution31 data points

Based on 31 loaded comments

Key moments

01Story posted
11/18/2025, 11:13:35 PM
20h ago
Step 01
02First comment
11/19/2025, 12:33:30 AM
1h after posting
Step 02
03Peak activity
13 comments in Hour 3
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03
04Latest activity
11/19/2025, 6:24:13 PM
1h ago
Step 04

Generating AI Summary...

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Discussion (34 comments)

Showing 31 comments of 34

LarsDu88

18h ago

1 reply

Did not realize the cofounder of Interplay also ported Doom for the 3DO. Looking at Fabien Sanglard's Doom Blackbook (https://fabiensanglard.net/b/gebbdoom.pdf), I just now noticed that Heineman actually provided some behind-the-scenes promotional photos to that book!

stevenspasbo

18h ago

Looks like the link from Hacker News doesn't work, but if you navigate to the PDF from the blog it does. Post is here: https://fabiensanglard.net/gebbdoom/index.html

jonny_eh

18h ago

3 replies

Rebecca is currently fighting cancer and has a gofundme: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-rebecca-ann-heineman-fight-a...

She's very close to her goal!

nsxwolf

18h ago

2 replies

Sadly, Rebecca passed away yesterday.

jonny_eh

15h ago

Oh damn, I hadn't heard :(

pfdietz

18h ago

The report was adenocarcinoma, which can be a variety of cancers, including pancreatic. I assume it was one of the nastier varieties like that.

TkTech

18h ago

2 replies

I hate every part of this. The pain and suffering and the struggle for money that family had to go through because the richest country on Earth can't be bothered to provide for its citizens. Rebecca should not have had to use a damn gofundme to get health care while struggling with cancer. Her family should not have been forced to publicize her care in the desperate hope that strangers might help her live. Utterly inhuman.

RIP Rebecca.

fsckboy

18h ago

4 replies

>because the richest country on Earth can't be bothered to provide for its citizens

The USA spends more on healthcare per person than any other country

  Locations  2024  2023  2022  2021  2020

 USA     14,885 13,818 12,898 12,375 11,926
 Switz.   9,963  9,301  9,089  8,392  7,621
 Norway   9,393  8,909  8,533  7,890  7,221
 Germany  9,365  8,503  8,652  8,103  7,364
 Nederl.  8,436  7,615  7,517  7,317  6,516
 Austria  8,401  7,697  7,700  7,465  6,295
 Luxemb.  8,162  7,247  6,854  6,432  5,859
 Sweden   7,871  7,364  6,977  6,617  6,069
 Ireland  7,813  7,027  6,748  6,221  5,619
 Belgium  7,750  7,178  6,906  6,554  6,097
 Austral  7,469  7,015  6,907  6,546  5,819
 France   7,354  6,848  6,701  6,395  5,874
 Canada   7,301  7,046  6,876  6,906  6,209
 Denmark  7,071  6,555  6,661  6,913  6,147
 Iceland  6,770  6,134  5,956  5,556  5,010
 UK       6,747  6,412  6,188  5,785  5,381
 New Zea  6,700  6,479  6,480  5,213  4,571
 Finland  6,655  6,276  5,765  5,395  4,967
 Japan    5,790  5,619  5,984  5,454  4,855
 Slovenia 5,527  4,556  4,353  3,894  3,756
 Spain    5,346  4,927  4,744  4,405  3,996
 Portugal 5,212  4,713  4,594  4,208  3,555
 Italy    5,164  4,847  4,744  4,409  4,027
 Czechia  5,014  4,570  4,394  4,462  4,098
 Korea    4,797  4,586  4,634  4,106  3,618
 Israel   4,352  3,840  3,682  3,358  3,015
 Poland   4,284  3,560  3,066  2,752  2,510
 Slovakia 4,021  3,280  3,126  2,922  2,449
 Lithuani 3,870  3,306  3,242  3,146  3,092
 Chile    3,749  3,396  3,113  2,848  2,489

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_hea...

TkTech

18h ago

2 replies

Is this supposed to be a rebuttal? It's inability to provide for its citizens while spending the most is proof that its model for health care is an utter, abject failure. That money is going to incredible private profits, not the citizens.

rayiner

17h ago

[delayed]

fsckboy

17h ago

was what I was responding to supposed to be a constructive suggestion?

>It's inability to provide for its citizens

provide some evidence, and also the counter evidence that shows that other countries don't leave people waiting for important procedures.

I don't claim to have the answers, but I will claim that you and GP for sure don't.

bdangubic

18h ago

except of course in USA 14,884 out of 14,885 went to … not care :)

markus_zhang

16h ago

The resources spent is more important. Not to prove that you are wrong because I don’t know the answer too, but we should compare actual care per $. Like service and medicine and such, not just the $ amount.

brohee

17h ago

That only because that spend is misattributed. Much of the money spent on US "healthcare" ends up wasted on admin in billings, collections and haggling with insurance co... Aka, not healthcare. I'd be very interested to see American numbers without the absolutely insane admin overhead...

rayiner

17h ago

1 reply

It’s a very sad situation, but she had an aggressive cancer that killed her in a matter of weeks. In Germany the healthcare option that would have been offered is hospice care. (Source: family friend runs a hospice facility in Germany and it’s much more common than in the U.S.) I doubt any other socialized healthcare system would have responded differently.

TkTech

16h ago

Germany most certainly covers treatment for aggressive adenocarcinoma, and it's covered at 100%. Germany is literally one of the best places in the world for all levels of oncology.

This isn't just with the hope of curing someone, even when you're terminal things like palliative chemotherapy are covered which can drastically ease your suffering.

cjcole

18h ago

1 reply

Nov 16

Update:

Rebecca Heineman - Organizer

It’s time. According to my doctors. All further treatments are pointless. So, please donate so my kids can create a funeral worthy of my keyboard, Pixelbreaker! So I can make a worthy entrance for reuniting with my one true love, Jennell Jaquays.

My daughter Cynthia Elizabeth Heineman, will be making the arrangements

stevenspasbo

18h ago

Horrific. Diagnosed to deceased in a matter of weeks.

welcome_dragon

18h ago

1 reply

She passed away. There's another story on HN about it

welcome_dragon

18h ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45960368

the_real_cher

10h ago

4 replies

Why doesnt Wikipedia put peoples pre-transition name?

Its a part of that persons history and alot of search engine data is connected to that last name.

igleria

10h ago

1 reply

Might be that person's wish. A lot, if not most of trans people don't want anything to do with their deadname.

mangodrunk

1h ago

When someone gets a name change and they are well known by their old name it’s misleading and confusing to never mention it. Just like Muhammad Ali‘s wikipedia page mentions his previous name.

jrochkind1

4h ago

it is literally in the second paragraph of the wikipedia article. I think it would be rude to repost it in these comments however, so please don't. Also it is the same last name.

pjc50

9h ago

It is in general (not just Wikipedia) good policy not to deadname trans people unless they request otherwise.

I appreciate that this creates problems in talking about people who transitioned mid-life and had substantial pre-transition accomplishments, like Sophie Wilson.

tempfile

10h ago

It is in the "Early life" section.

ChrisMarshallNY

16h ago

That’s a great story!

I never knew of her, before yesterday, but it does seem that she was quite a brilliant and decent person.

QuantumAtom

17h ago

May her memory be a blessing.

cognitive-sci

18h ago

Wow

ktallett

10h ago

I'm extremely upset by her death as she was a real hero of mine. I was homeless in the 00's and could code and it was my way out of being homeless. I used to go to the internet cafe on Tottenham Court Road in London to hone my skills and work on a project I could use to get work. I ended up being lucky that a very kind guy offered me a job after seeing what I was doing and my life changed from that moment. Hearing her story since then made her feel like a kindred spirit.

ddasdsasdkjasdj

17h ago

Here's a wonderful interview with Rebecca that goes into a lot of detail about her experiences as a trans person in the 80's and 90's. She said she doesn't like to talk about those things too much because she'd rather be admired than pitied, but the context makes her accomplishments more remarkable considering she played life on hard mode for a while.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SyIL6zAmhA

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ID: 45973573Type: storyLast synced: 11/19/2025, 7:29:57 PM

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