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[Dutchling]

Spore has it as well, although I doubt they were the first ones

[EuchreJack]

The whole Precursor-Invader thing always seemed to me like a Master of Orion 2 backstory knockoff.

Precursor = Orions (left behind a guardian robots to protect their stuff)

Invaders = Antarians (Complete with warping into the system!)

The concept is much older than MOO2...

True, but I'm not sure where it started, and as far as video games are concerned it is the first I can recall.

[LoSboccacc]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Precursors

[forsaken1111]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Precursors

I am not entirely sure what just happened, but I apparently clicked a link and now it's 3 hours later.

[RedKing]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Precursors

I am not entirely sure what just happened, but I apparently clicked a link and now it's 3 hours later.

lol...you too?

[Sirus]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Precursors

I am not entirely sure what just happened, but I apparently clicked a link and now it's 3 hours later.

You develop a resistance after a while. Or go insane.

[Vgray]

Hmm. I assume my game randomly deciding to advance only a few seconds means there's fighting going on somewhere. What if I generated a world with only precursors? My newest one has no aliens because I got fed up with it.

[Gamerboy4life]

It's like the ME reapers.

They come along for the booty every time a new civilization gets to the level they desire.

[Flying Dice]

The earliest example I can think of offhand is Weber's Mutineers' Moon trilogy, the first volume of which was published in 1991, but yes, the concept has existed practically as long as the idea of alien civilizations. You could probably find some sort of connection to old religious mythology with cyclical end-of-the-world type scenarios. And, of course, to the whole Elder Race thing that comes up in every fantasy novel ever written.

[LoSboccacc]

1991, duh. Tolkien is full of precursors and invaders.
Edit: I'm not sayng he was first, either

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

I wish I could download this.  Curse you, Dial-up internet!

[EuchreJack]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Precursors

I am not entirely sure what just happened, but I apparently clicked a link and now it's 3 hours later.

lol...you too?

You're both lucky.  I lost twice as much time.  Or, perhaps I did the reading of two forumites!  That sounds way better! 

[Flying Dice]

1991, duh. Tolkien is full of precursors and invaders.
Edit: I'm not sayng he was first, either

Yeah, I was pretty clearly talking about the science-fiction/space opera flavor of it, rather than the (heh) precursor appearances in fantasy. As I noted in my own post.


Incidentally, Merriam-Webster cites the first known usage of the word itself as being in the 15th c., drawn from the Middle English precursoure, from the Latin praecursor, from praecurrere; anyone with a passing knowledge of romantic languages will pretty easily understand that means "to run before", roughly.

So yeah, as I said, the concept is probably about as old as the word itself. Mythology -> Fantasy -> Science Fiction. I had thought that I made that pretty clear (as if it wasn't obvious enough of a connection without someone spelling it out).

[RedKing]

Or as the TvTropes page mentions, the legends of Atlantis.

Lovecraft also used this trope, often in a sci-fi context.

[Flying Dice]

More simply, it is one of those security-blanket concepts akin to the Farmboy With Hidden Power being raised by someone who isn't a biological parent. Tropes are not bad, etc. etc.