I may be a bit rusty on Aliens but I didn't think that they had a mineral element?

Although you make an excellent point that the Zerg are indeed more plant-like than Aliens.

We all know that everything started with pac-man.

Yellow/Orangish Ghost=Protoss

pink/purplish Ghost=Zerg

Blue ghost=Humans

Pac-Man = your daddy.

Red Ghost = no game has been able to complete understand the potential of mocking the red ghost.  It is so far advanced we may never see an imitation in our lifetime.

Classy sir. I applaud your laudable sarcasm.

Close, Tyranids actually appeared in the first Rogue Trader in 1992. Written by Rick Priestley.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandkings_(novelette)

George RR Martin's Sandkings involves an insect-like creature that has a hive-mind ... They even evolve into varying types like the zerg do.  

Although I don't think it's mere coincidence with Blizzard and the zerg similarity to terranids 

I think a species of this sort (Hive Mind/Swarming) would be interesting to do solely as a plant species. There is plenty of precedence already amongst flora to really feed into this.

The Alien/Zerg/Tyranid - infesting biological terror - while fun and cool - I feel has been WAY overused.

What I'd like is a spreading, sentient forest - giant fly traps, vines, mobile plants, pollen attacks. The zerg has a "touch" of this - the creep is great fun and would work perfectly for a concept like this (except, call it "The Verdant" or something).

If we "really" need the infesting property - there's always "Pod People" too - but I couldn't care less about that.

Using dead soldiers as a resource (fertilizer) - water - sun (build use "flower" reactors that collect the sun resource) etc. etc.

Anyway - tangent over.

Plants vs Zombies!!! Sunflower!!!

I do remember that scenario from All The Flesh Must Be Eaten where dead bodies were infestated (or altered) by mutant plants (due to some short of human chemical) and raised as zombies.

Tyranids before 1997:

1997:

Tyranids after 1997:

Who copied whom?  You be the judge.

Even pre-1997 there were many different types of 'nids. Their backstory "overrun outnumber overwhelm" and "incorporate valuable genes from assimilated species to create new 'nids and upgrade existing 'nid species"; these were practically copy pasted when the Zerg backstory was being drawn up.

Zerg are the bastard children of the Tyranid - both have changed since their inception, albeit very little.

Similarly Terran Marines are the bastard children of the Space Marines - still a shameless ripoff imo, but less so than the Zerg/Tyranid; Space Marines were genetically engineered men/giants with extra vital organs and extended lifetimes while Terran Marines were mostly all normal sized ex-cons brainwashed/implanted so that they would serve as front line soldiers - striking difference.

I'd say Protoss could be the spiritual children of the Eldar - not a shameless ripoff tho. The Eldar battle armor head pieces resemble what the the Protoss' normal heads/faces look like. Some of their architecture is similar as well. Some similarities, but not a copy/paste job like the previous 2.

Then there is the whole business that Warcraft 1 was originally to be a Warhammer game spotlighting the Humans facing off against Orcs...

then again, both GW and Blizzard don't talk about that openly...

but yeah.

+

=

About the legs... Well if your dad was a Predator you'd inherit your moms bent legs too.

"Once you go predator you never go ... your just dead."

Well, Blizzard originally did Warcraft (although you'll never get them to admit to this) as a game for Games Workshop, which they eventually rejected, hence many, many, MANY of the very obvious similarities between the cultures in the first two Warcraft games and Warhammer Fantasy orcs. The storyline was different, but that's merely level design. There was a shit tonne of retcons in Warcraft 3 to distance them. (EDIT: NINJA'D THIRTY MINUTES AGO Dx)

It wouldn't be surprising if Starcraft was something similar or if some of the lead designers are Blizzard were a bit pissy at Games Workshop for the move they pulled during development of Warcraft (which would've usually completely shut down a company).

Oh, and a few other things you'll never hear Blizzard admit to: Metzen is an idiot, Blizzard owns Telenet (I don't think it was TeleCOM but I might be wrong, it's what they used to host Battle.net, the only indication I ever had of this was a little article in a magazine a few years back about them acquiring it, hence the constant fuck ups), WoW is bleeding subs. Etc etc.

IIRC Blizzard tried for the license to use WH40K at that time and got turned down. But they wanted that game to badly they changed some names and did it anyway.

So.... Just Warcraft over again?

Zerg & Tyranid are very similar yes, but theyre both just a rip off of Alien.

I dont think the others (terrans/spacemarines, protoss/eldar)are very similar at all.

all good info. Thank you.

Well... I can see how that happened. Really, I don't care who copied who. Both games are good in their own right and have a different twist on the same basic concepts.

EDIT: After looking at the above image of the Protoss I realized that there's a real Egyptian vibe going on. Anyone else seeing that?

It's tough to track down who started what.  One author creates something which inspires another, who then writes something which inspires a third, who then writes something..

An interesting tid-bit I found while verifying ST's publish date...

From wiki

The 1986 James Cameron film Aliens incorporated themes and phrases from the novel, such as the terms "the drop" and "bug hunt", as well as the cargo-loader exoskeleton. The actors playing the Colonial Marines were also required to read Starship Troopers as part of their preparation prior to filming.

i see what you did there. and i like it

@ Will, yea I notice the Egyptian Vibe with the Protoss.

....

how much u wanna bet the Original STARGATE movie (1994) influenced the final Concept Design of the Protoss?