Gregory Yob (June 18, 1945 – October 13, 2005) was an American computer

game design Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...

er.

Early life

Gregory was born in

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...

. An article about his experiment on simulating gravitational fields with droplets of water on a soap bubble was published in ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

'' in December 1964, under ''The Amateur Scientist''.

Career

His one published game, '' Hunt the Wumpus'' (1975), written while he was attending

University of Massachusetts Dartmouth The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (UMass Dartmouth or UMassD) is a public research university in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. It is the southernmost campus of the University of Massachusetts system. Formerly Southeastern Massachusetts Un ...

, is one of the earliest adventure games. While living in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

, Yob came across logic games on a

mainframe computer A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...

named '' Hurkle'', ''Snark'', and ''

Mugwump The Mugwumps were Republican political activists in the United States who were intensely opposed to political corruption. They were never formally organized. Typically they switched parties from the Republican Party by supporting Democratic ...

''. Each of these games was based on a 10 × 10 grid, and Yob recognized that a puzzle game on a computer could have a far more complex structure. He created the world for ''Wumpus'' in the shape of a

dodecahedron In geometry, a dodecahedron (Greek , from ''dōdeka'' "twelve" + ''hédra'' "base", "seat" or "face") or duodecahedron is any polyhedron with twelve flat faces. The most familiar dodecahedron is the regular dodecahedron with regular pentagon ...

, in part because as a child he made a kite with that shape. In the late 1980s he designed Comfort House. He wrote: "Comfort House is a new form of entertainment. High technology and interactive systems combine with your participation to give you an enjoyable evening uniquely attuned to your senses and mind." It was never built. He was an engineer and helped build the first iteration of student radio station KDVS at

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

, where he ran an avant-garde show. Gregory Yob, also known as Hara Ra, had changed his name to Gregory H. Coresun shortly before his death. In recent years he had made his home in

Santa Cruz, California Santa Cruz (Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 62,956. Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz is a pop ...

Death

After five days in a

diabetic coma Diabetic coma is a life-threatening but reversible form of coma found in people with diabetes mellitus. Three different types of diabetic coma are identified: #Severe low blood sugar in a diabetic person #Diabetic ketoacidosis (usually type 1) ...

at the

intensive care unit 220px, Intensive care unit An intensive care unit (ICU), also known as an intensive therapy unit or intensive treatment unit (ITU) or critical care unit (CCU), is a special department of a hospital or health care facility that provides intensiv ...

in Santa Cruz, on October 13, 2005, he was airlifted to a hospice in

Scottsdale, Arizona , settlement_type = City , named_for = Winfield Scott , image_skyline = , image_seal = Seal of Scottsdale (Arizona).svg , image_blank_emblem = City of Scottsdale Script Logo.svg , nick ...

, where he died that evening. Technicians from

Alcor Life Extension Foundation The Alcor Life Extension Foundation, most often referred to as Alcor, is an American nonprofit, federally tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organization based in Scottsdale, Arizona, United States. Alcor advocates for, researches, and performs cryonics, the ...

were present and started preparations immediately. His body was moved into an ice bath and taken to Alcor's Scottsdale facility where his severed head underwent neuropreservation.

References

External links

Together forever: Local couple hopes to be frozen through cryonics and see the future
on

Santa Cruz Sentinel The ''Santa Cruz Sentinel'' is a daily newspaper published in Santa Cruz, California, covering Santa Cruz County, California, and owned by Media News Group. Ottaway Community Newspapers, a division of Dow Jones & Company bought the paper in 1982 ...

newspaper article, July 12, 2002 (archived). {{DEFAULTSORT:Yob, Gregory 1945 births 2005 deaths Video game programmers Artists from Eugene, Oregon University of Massachusetts Dartmouth alumni American video game designers Cryonically preserved people