I was briefly possessed by the need to create a diagram charting the family tree of inspiration from Roadside Picnic (1972) and could not rest until I created this image

Warning: Contains minor spoilers for a current TV show

Associations get progressively more tenuous as you go down the chart

Update four years later: Until April 16, you can get the "Redux" version of Metro 2033 for free on Steam by simply clicking this button. I will delete this post on April 16.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/286690/Metro_2033_Redux/

Steamで90% OFF:Metro 2033 Redux

In 2013 the world was devastated by an apocalyptic event, annihilating almost all mankind and turning the Earth's surface into a poisonous wasteland. A handful of survivors took refuge in the depths of the Moscow underground, and human civilization entered a new Dark Age. The year is 2033.

@mcc It's also available on GOG for free.

@mcc non-DRM version for free: https://www.gog.com/en/game/metro_2033_redux

Offer ends in: 1d 17h 33m

Metro 2033 Redux

In 2013 the world was devastated by an apocalyptic event, annihilating almost all man

GOG.com
@mcc the steam app is showing me an embedded web browser, containing a page that is asking me if I have steam installed. What hath we wrought here anyway.
@mcc What about M.John Harrison's _Nova Swing_, and also possibly arguably _Darker Than Black_?
@mcc Also missing, perhaps more crucially, is “actual reality”, which is kind of wild.
@WAHa_06x36 This was a completely conscious choice because to be accurate you actually do need "the stalkers in the actual literal Chernobyl exclusion zone" between Stalker and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and I decided not to incorporate a mass death event into my joke chart
@mcc Fair enough. It is just so utterly wild to me that Chernobyl happened, and people just went, “Oh, it’s this. We know this, there was a book. We’re ready.”

@mcc You can watch the original Tarkovsky's Stalker movie from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3hBLv-HLEc

Now I have urge to watch it again.

Stalker | FULL MOVIE | Directed by Andrey Tarkovsky

Based on the novel "Roadside Picnic" by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. The Zone that arose on Earth for unknown reasons attracts attention with inexplicable ph...

YouTube
@mcc i'm not sure what WEP does here :')
and what a trainwreck that was
@Claire The diagram was made while the show was still on the air and… it had not, at that point, yet gone downhill the way it later did.
@mcc Even with that information, I'm still not completely sure how Ai is queer coded. The dominating motif for her arc is "my guidance councilor's involved in some pretty shady shit, only some of which is him grooming me."
@mcc The Alan Dean Foster novel Cyber Way also uses the roadside picnic idea. One character even explains a major plot element to another in terms of alien visitation being like stopping on a highway to change a tire, then the ants come out and discover stuff left behind.
@mcc Television play (televizní inscenace) would probably be a better term for the Czechoslovak "Visit from Space". It didn't have episodes and the production was cheaper than a movie.
@mcc otherside picnic getting the honorary red star by having one (1) guy who is canonically losing his mind call it "the zone"
@mcc Ooh... I loved Otherside Picnic...

@mcc now I have to look into Otherside Picnic.

I thought the Metro games were based on the Metro 2023 book by Dmitry Glukhovsky?

@Taffer I recommend Otherside Picnic.

I think something about my wording in the diagram confused some people. The game Metro 2033 is based on the novel Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukovsky, which is unrelated to Roadside Picnic or the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series.