Litecoin is the result of some of us who joined together on IRC in an effort to create a real alternative currency similar to Bitcoin. We wanted to make a coin that is silver to Bitcoin's gold. Various alternative currencies have come and gone. Some brought innovation, but they all had problems.
- ixcoin - Nasakioto premined 580k coins. Seemed like a pump and dump. Competed with Bitcoin for GPU resources - Dead (~2 gh/s)
- i0coin - Basically ixcoin without the premine. Not much support was given to this coin after it was released. - Dead (~5 gh/s)
Maybe you're wrong about those two though, Charles.