Ever had an idea only to suddenly see it somewhere else?

I have. I used to play a Star Wars game called Rebellion. Honestly rebellion was just okay but I loved editing it and puting my edited content online. Well two of my characters were Revan (though not Darth Revan) & Darth Malik and a big red kill assassin droid among other things.

So needless to say I about wet myself when I started playing Knights of the Old Republic and saw all three and a few other similarities. Now did they get their ideas from my old edits online? Unlikely since I put over 200 such edits online and the characters look very different from my own, however I've always thought it was pretty cool to think some of the KotR guys might have played my stuff and had that somewhere in their subconcious or even that it was just a case of coincidence it is still a great story and all my friends who had worked on the project with me had a good long laugh.

Has anything like that ever happened to you?

Yeah, I don't have any proof, nor am I angry, but I believe Joe Maduira took some characters/ideas from my college newspaper comic strip and worked them into his unfinished comics series Battlechasers.

How would he get his hands on a university paper comics strip? Nearest I can figure is the comics book club I frequented. That club was composed of serious big-time comics nuts who go to cons, artists who aspire to go professional, etc. They all read my strip since I was basically the only artist worth a damn for that paper. Somehow it trickled to Joe Mad?

It may be coincidence, but what really convinced me was a single panel in Battlechasers which was practically identical in everything, to 1 of my panels. Of course Joe is a much better artist but otherwise identical.

I was paid 200 dollars in the 80s for Spider-mans black costume.

(just kidding, someone else was though)

I thought of a way of linking these things called computers to each other so you could share information between them, but I did not ever think it would catch on, so I never did anything with the idea. Do ya'll think an idea like that would work?

:whistling:

You're too late. Al Gore thought of it first. lol!

I was at my friends house and I was thirsty so I got myself a glass of water. I looked at the filter and thought for a minute and said to him “You know what would be nice, if they had such a thing as a filter that adds flavors.” A week latter I saw a commercial for it on TV.

Well, although it wasn't mine, Chuck thought of this idea (posted online circa 2002), which is how this wizard helps people adjust to the re-appearance of magic in the world. He talked about it in a couple of forums, but never had the time to write anything about it, too busy with Gods Of Arr-Kelaan. And now there is Errant Apprentice, which has essentially the same theme.

You can't copyright an idea. For the record, we don't harbor any ill feelings, we just think Kevin came up with something similar on his own with no help from us. Just happens sometimes. Kinda sucks a little for us though, because now if we published anything, it would look like we ripped his idea off. :(

mlai
You're too late. Al Gore thought of it first. lol!

Crap! I hate that guy. He stole my idea and put it in his lock box.

Mak

mlai
You're too late. Al Gore thought of it first. lol!

Crap! I hate that guy. He stole my idea and put it in his lock box.

For the record, Gore NEVER said that (at least in that context), despite some internet myth to the contrary. He DID create the High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991 which led to the development of the internet. Gore was talking about network access for the average American way back in the 1970's. He saw a future where others either didn't understand it, or were afraid of it. So we do have him to thank, at least a little.

I know the exaggeration is funnier, though. ;)

back when i had my 286 computer i bought this game (i forget it's exact name). it was a build your own DnD adventure. it came on floppy. the only limit to the size of what you built was your hard drive capacity. while i was messing around with it i thought wouldn't it be great to make a massive adventure game and have all kinds of people playing it. too bad i'm not smart enough to have acted on that idea way back then.

SpANG

Mak

mlai
You're too late. Al Gore thought of it first. lol!

Crap! I hate that guy. He stole my idea and put it in his lock box.

For the record, Gore NEVER said that (at least in that context), despite some internet myth to the contrary. He DID create the High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991 which led to the development of the internet. Gore was talking about network access for the average American way back in the 1970's. He saw a future where others either didn't understand it, or were afraid of it. So we do have him to thank, at least a little.

I know the exaggeration is funnier, though. ;)

He did say it was a series of tubes, right?

Somebody ripped me off on the idea of putting marshmallows in coffee.

Ten years ago or so I came up with a story of young guy going to a school of magic. He had dark hair, wore glasses and was an orphan. lol!

And no, he didn't have a scar on his forehead.

Also, it turned out I wasn't the first one to come up with the line “Welcome to Rivendell, Mr Anderson”

Guess how i found out how webcomics existed.

Back when I was a kid, I had a character named Captain Napalm. And then one day, I opened the paper, and lo and behold, Calvin reveals one of his imaginary alter egos to be Captain Napalm. And I was like, “Well, so much for that.”

The most recent one involves the character Marshall Brody from Dasien. He's tall, muscular, and has a blonde mullet. Then one day, I turn on Adult Swim and see this new show called The Venture Brothers, featuring Brock Samson; tall, muscular, and has a blonde mullet.

Neilsama
Back when I was a kid, I had a character named Captain Napalm. And then one day, I opened the paper, and lo and behold, Calvin reveals one of his imaginary alter egos to be Captain Napalm. And I was like, “Well, so much for that.”

The most recent one involves the character Marshall Brody from Dasien. He's tall, muscular, and has a blonde mullet. Then one day, I turn on Adult Swim and see this new show called The Venture Brothers, featuring Brock Samson; tall, muscular, and has a blonde mullet.

I hate to tell you this, but a good portion of the south has a blonde mullet. (Not so much the tall and muscular thing though)

Flavored envelopes. I thought I was going to make millions. Doesn't matter, I still have the ideas of self heating jackets and light sensitive curtains.

Flaming pants.
Turns out fabric is already flammable.

Once I came up with the idea of a superhero with all the powers of a ghost.

About a year later, Nick started airing Danny Phantom.

Every joke I've ever come up with turns out to have been on The Simpsons.

This kinda crap happens whenever I write a song.

But I have actually always came up with an original storyline. I don't know how. I guess I take all of the typical storylines and throw them out.

And my jokes aren't really considered jokes. Just silly situations.

Yay.

When I was in school, I made this picture for this anti smoking/drug thing of a girl karate-kicking a giant cigarette with legs. The teachers loved it so much they sent it to be hung at a highschool in Washington with many other anti-drug drawings.

…well, has anyone seen that commercial of the lady kicking the giant cigarette?
Bastards! I spit on you! XP

Quite a number of coincidence. I love and hate coincidence. Love because it's nice to know that your ideas are put into existence. Hate because you now have to come up with newer ideas since that idea is already taken.

I remembered a very specific moment of my childhood.

I was playing with my toys and i was looking for something new to play about when a Discovery Channel special about parallel universes and alternate realities special came on. After that i came out with an idea about people who had the power to travel between the universes and realities and stuff.

I changed the channels to WB and saw an ad for a tv show with the same premise.

My dad said he created that tear-away part on a “to go” coffee cup. Million dollar idea.