Well I have to agree with op. Encryption and obfuscation started with early copy protection systems, even packers like upx offered that iirc. Measurements again

Well I have to agree with op. Encryption and obfuscation started with early copy protection systems, even packers like upx offered that iirc. Measurements against memory manipulation have also been around for a while, I encountered them the first time when I tried cheating money in rollercoaster tycoon in 99 or whenever that came out. Obfuscating the network protocol actually seems more of a novelty than those two things.