Tomb Raider is older, and the first 3D platformer that I recall.
Never mind, they came out the same year. Damn, '96 was a good year for games.
Let’s see… what came before then? Jumping Flash? Anyone remember that game?
Dr. Adder wasn’t published till '84 though, the same year as Neuromancer.
As others have pointed out, the Harry Potter books aren’t really very original (not a criticism).
In particular:
Truly original material is rare because artists are brought up in a particular culture, so can’t help being influenced by what’s around them. Often an artist is perceived as being original because they popularise an unfamiliar genre or combine them in an interesting way. That’s the case for most of the examples given in this thread. Is something like Led Zepplin truely original? Most of their songs use the ancient pentatonic scale.
How about H.P. Lovecraft as the first to invent a universe in which mankind is an insignificant yeast strain that has just popped into existence, and is so hopelessly primitive complared to the older denizens that to merely behold them will literally cause his brains to run out his ears?
Affectionally derided by some for his awful writing style, none-the-less his pantheon of vast unimaginably incomprehensible (though very possibly squamous) beings is still with us.
I’m guessing you’ve never seen *Rocky and Bullwinkle * (in any of its various program incarnations).
It’s more accurate to say that Groening took a genre that had fallen into relative obscurity, added his own perspective, revitalized it and basically re-invented it.
As a matter of fact, Dr. Adder was published first, though few people remember that. It’s first printing is listed as March 1984, while the first printing of Neuromancer is listed as July 1984. In addition, the first printing of *Dr. Adder * has a 1979 afterword from Philip K. Dick saying he first read the manuscript in 1972.
Of course, given the realities of publishing, Gibson’s manuscript must have been turned in to Ace Books long before March 1984. It was there almost certainly in 1983, since Terry Carr was stockpiling books for the new series of Ace Science Fiction Specials. I don’t know of any evidence that Gibson had read Jeter, either. And if you open Dr. Adder and start reading, you wouldn’t think you were reading a cyberpunk novel even with the occasional reference to the Interface, whereas Gibson had had a string of cyberpunk short stories before *Neuromancer * was published.
I still give the creation of cyberpunk to Gibson. Whatever Jeter did was lumped in with the subgenre after the fact. But Gibson still borrowed a lot of it from Delany’s Nova, Vinge’s “True Names,” and even Katherine MacLean’s “The Missing Man.”
I’m afraid that much of the time, people who say that something was first are either oversimplifying or revealing how little of the history of the field they’re aware of.
Saying that there was anything original about Harry Potter has to be the extreme version of this, unless you’re saying it was the first book to steal from so many sources.
Ha. This is a great question, because every suggestion can be argued with in three distinct ways:
- That it wasn’t the best of its kind, because that’s subjective.
- That it wasn’t the first of its kind, because there is always some unknown thing that failed that came before.
- That “its kind” is so limited that it’s a meaningless accomplishment.
Not a entertainment genre but the first Ferris wheel (built by George Ferris for the 1893 World’s Fair) was arguably also the best Ferris wheel ever built. It was huge - 250 feet tall - and it could carry over two thousand passengers.
I second War of the Worlds. The best alien invasion story of it’s kind (even if we know Mars is now devoid of life), clever and ironic ending for it’s time, and the first of it’s kind. The story is still a riveting read and holds up really well by today’s standards. Also, I dare anyone to count the times H.G. uses the phrase “to and fro”. But really, argue a better malevolent alien invasion story.
I’d also say Kubrick broke the mold when it came to 2001: A Space Odyssey. I don’t know enough about film history, but the telling of the rising of humanity, it’s tools, the influence of a benevolent alien force and where we’re headed as a species in as close to a scientifically accurate voice hasn’t been handled any better. Props to Arthur C. Clarke as well, of course, but the film and what Kubrick did with it, I feel adds so much more weight and poignance.
ETA: Counter examples I can think of right now are Close Encounters, The Fountain, and maybe Sunshine? Not as good as 2001, but I loved them
Crash Bandicoot was first - according to Wiki, it came out in May 1996 and Tomb Raider in November of the same year.
How about Superman for super hero comic books?
I’ll chime in with Kraftwerk. If not the first electronica band, certainly the first to be taken seriously by more than a small, cultish base. Their sound ushered in a whole new era of music, influencing all forms of popular music in the decades since. Thirty years later, you can still hear songs on the radio that clearly “borrowed” from Kraftwerk, and while there may be a few other contenders, most would agree that they were the best electronic band of all time.