History VideoGame / MarathonExpandedUniverse

*** "We Met Once in the Garden": 10:53 in-game (11:44 OST).

An atmospheric and often terrifying total conversion of extremely high quality. The first release, which can be found [[http://simplici7y.com/items/marathon-apotheosis on Simplici7y,]] was only about 97% finished, but only occasionally has the ObviousBeta elements commonly associated with unfinished mods. One of the original creators began rebuilding the game almost from scratch in 2020. A recent preview of this is available [[https://youtu.be/QtBL1nwTJSY on YouTube]], and an older, heavily WIP (with broken physics, weapon sprites, and HUD; placeholder sounds; and miscellaneous level bugs) but nonetheless quite impressive preview [[https://youtu.be/3cche7q_uz8 can be found on YouTube.]] The remade ''Apotheosis X'' was [[https://simplici7y.com/items/apotheosis-x-5 released]] on September 30, 2022. Version 1.1 was released on January 12, 2023; it features some bug fixes, adjustments to game balance, additional save terminals, enhancements to sound effects, and a new manual.

** The ''Apotheosis'' beta has a couple of examples, since it was, well, a beta. There's a pit on "The Salt Pile" that was supposed to have lava, but lacks it, meaning that if you fall into it, you get stuck and have to reload (or kill yourself). Since oxygen is consumed faster on Total Carnage, the level "4 Dead Otters on Strings Dancing" is probably all but impossible for players to complete on TC... [[https://youtu.be/7qvfLteH9c4 unless]] [[https://youtu.be/cljfR9Hfspg they're]] [[https://youtu.be/qO85_4CCZ_s speedrunners]]. Likewise, "Gravin Threndor" ''just barely'' has enough oxygen to complete on TC, but it may take players several tries to complete. On the whole, it lacks the ObviousBeta aspects that many other unfinished mods possess (there a couple of other rough edges like a couple of polygons on "Eve of Orbit" taking you to the end of the game, and a few walls that should be marked solid being passable), but overall, it's about 97% complete. In August 2020, one of the original creators decided to finish it properly; a complete remake entitled ''Apotheosis X'' appeared in September 2022. Version 1.0 still featured a few examples, some owing to weird engine bugs and others to oversights that escaped the creators' attention; version 1.1 fixes them.

* SetRightWhatOnceWasWrong: The premise of the ''Marathon: Eternal'' GameMod. Multiple times.

Links to nine of the most popular fan scenarios can be found on [[https://alephone.lhowon.org/scenarios.html#more Lhowon.org's scenarios page]]; a few others include [[https://sourceforge.net/projects/emr3/ Excalibur: Morgana's Revenge]] and [[http://simplici7y.com/items/pfh-joueur-a1-unimap-3 Pfh'Joueur]]. Various other mods, enhancements and maps are available [[http://www.simplici7y.com/ here]] (newer; backup archive is [[https://lochnits.com/s7/ here]]), [[http://fileball.whpress.com/ here]] or [[http://www.rising-studios.com/Marathon/fileball/Fileball%20Archive/marathon/ here]] (older), or [[http://archives.bungie.org/ here]] (oldest). For those willing to go down the emulation route (which is also necessary to run some of those old files), Macintosh Garden also has [[https://macintoshgarden.org/games/marathon-trilogy-box-set the Trilogy Box Set's Definitive Map Collection]], which contains around a thousand add-ons for the games. If you find yourself stuck, you can find completions of many of the mods [[https://youtube.com/c/MarathonVidmaster on YouTube]][[note]]This channel's primary curator is also one of the developers of mods such as ''Eternal'' and the upcoming ''Tempus Irae Redux''[[/note]]. A massive number of terminals, maps, and even flowcharts showing how levels connect can be found [[https://lochnits.com/marathon/scenarios/ here]].

For those interested in creating content for Aleph One, meanwhile, the codirector of ''Eternal'' has put together a set of [[https://aaronfreed.github.io/mapmaking.html mapping tips]] that may help, including a detailed setup guide for Weland, the primary program now used for mapping. People on the [[https://discord.gg/c7rEVgY the Marathon Discord]] may also be able to help (note that #development, counterintuitively, is only for engine and editor development; questions about mapmaking go in #forge).

Lua scripting by W'rkncacnter (of ''Yuge'' and ''Aleph One: Pathways into Darkness'') and Jon Irons; terminals by windbreaker; dead body messages by windbreaker, W'rkncacnter, and Jon Irons; level design by windbreaker (see ''Yuge'' above and several net map collections below); soundtrack by Jon Irons. Trailer [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LvxjTw8rjk here]]; soundtrack available on [[https://music.jonirons.net/album/istoria Bandcamp]] (24-bit FLAC), the [[https://archive.org/details/istoria-soundtrack Internet Archive]] (Ogg Vorbis), or [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXuOVl4zA_E YouTube]] (streaming).

* EvilIsSexy: From the looks of it, this is a {{Justified|Trope}} or InvokedTrope InUniverse in ''Eternal'' 1.3. Hathor [[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/691755375329804318/811088711646314576/hathor-volat.gif looks]] [[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/691755375329804318/811086713711624192/hathor-impetit.gif like]] [[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/691755375329804318/811087500725977088/hathor-defendit.gif this]],[[note]]The file names are GratuitousLatin for "Hathor flies", "Hathor attacks", and "Hathor defends"[[/note]] and she has deliberately chosen her own appearance [[spoiler:because she's merged with a Jjaro cyborg operator (or "operatríx", as the Jjaro AI Custós refers to her) whose form conforms to the user's desired appearance.]][[labelnote:Latin grammar note]]In [[GratuitousLatin Latin]], ''operātrīx'' is simply a feminine form of ''operātor'', which literally means ''(male) worker''; ''opera'' is the plural of ''opus'', meaning ''work'', ''operor'' means ''I work'', and ''-trīx'' is a suffix added to a verb to form a third-declension feminine form of an agent noun. Thus, an ''operātrīx'' is a female worker. Note that the term ''operātrīx'' only appears relatively recently by Latin standards; Classical works use the term ''operātor'' for both male and female workers. However, the suffix ''-tor'' is AlwaysMale in many other cases (i.e., you wouldn't ever use ''imperātor'' to refer to the empress), while the suffix ''-trīx'' is AlwaysFemale (i.e., the empress is the ''imperātrīx''), which is no doubt why ''operātrīx'' eventually appeared.[[/labelnote]]. The co-director comments in a [[https://youtu.be/GpxkzS8OiPc YouTube video description]], "My personal interpretation is that she intends to be both sexy and intimidating, but others can draw their own conclusions." [[spoiler:However, the developers ultimately ZigZag or {{subvert|edTrope}} this trope; by the time she gets her body in 1.3's final story, she's performed a HeelFaceTurn. That said, this is also suggested to be her appearance as the "Great Mother Crouched Behind the Throne", which (per developer commentary) is comprised of a FusionDance of two versions of Hathor, one of which has undergone a HeelFaceTurn and the other hasn't, so perhaps we've ended up with "BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil Is Sexy".]]

* [[http://simplici7y.com/items/caustic-dystopia Caustic Dystopia]] by windbreaker (see also ''Yuge'' above); most recent release 2012-12-31, featuring 24 maps.

*** Lastly, a few specific movements would qualify for EpicRocking all by themselves: as mentioned above, Talashar's "Aerival" (11:55) and Aaron Freed's "What About Bob?" (8:19), plus Solar-Tron's "New Pacific Hfarl" (7:25 in-game, 8:00 OST), Aaron's "Flowers in Heaven" (6:08), and Talashar's "Bungie Cyber-Thrash Medley" (6:04). An edge case here is Nicholas Singer's "Flowers in Heaven/A Walk in the Woods/The Maw" (6:25), which is actually comprised of two significantly different versions of the same mix placed end-to-end (of which only the first features "The Maw").

A second re-release, titled ''Tempus Irae Redux'', has been in development since April 2020. Features include higher-resolution graphics with glow and parallax mapping, new and remastered sounds (many in stereo), overhauls to levels designed to fix several recurring complaints, a new secret level, a soundtrack, and more; a playlist containing development videos from ''Redux'' can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoysJW6pXQ6kpii7XfbzW65NP6IZxbK4n here]], with [[https://youtu.be/TfBijnOBZ_w?list=PLoysJW6pXQ6kpii7XfbzW65NP6IZxbK4n "Gates of Delirium"]], [[https://youtu.be/v=pZJhqK7SReE?list=PLoysJW6pXQ6kpii7XfbzW65NP6IZxbK4n "Ameseno, Italy"]] (extensive revisions of existing levels) and [[https://youtu.be/C1QgBOwSgz0?list=PLoysJW6pXQ6kpii7XfbzW65NP6IZxbK4n "Il grande silenzio"]] (the new secret level; Italian for ''Film/TheGreatSilence'') perhaps being good starting places. (The last video also contains "Mt. Vesuvius" and "I Can Feel It", two other levels that received major revisions.) ''Redux'' will feature all 37 solo levels of the original ''Tempus Irae''[[note]]with "Mt. Vesuvius" and "Mt. Vesuvius 2", which were only separated due to now-deprecated engine restrictions, recombined into one level[[/note]], all 12 solo levels of ''Tempus Irae 2: The Lost Levels''[[note]]with "Il spazio pagano" [Italian: "The Pagan Space"] and "...in fin dei conti..." [Italian: "After All"; literally "In the End of the Accounts"] likewise recombined, for the same reasons as "Mt. Vesuvius"[[/note]], two new solo levels[[note]]the aforementioned "Il grande silenzio" and a level called "The Library of Babel" bridging ''Tempus Irae'' and ''The Lost Levels''[[/note]], all 20 net maps that shipped with ''Tempus Irae'', and all 12 net maps that shipped with ''The Lost Levels''; since two pairs of levels have been combined, this makes for a total of 49 solo levels, 32 net levels, and 81 levels total. As of early September 2022, the creators tentatively estimate that it may be ready to open to testers as early as late September or early October 2022.

*** "Run, Coward!": 11:36.

Links to nine of the most popular fan scenarios can be found on [[https://alephone.lhowon.org/scenarios.html#more Lhowon.org's scenarios page]]; a few others include [[https://sourceforge.net/projects/emr3/ Excalibur: Morgana's Revenge]] and [[http://simplici7y.com/items/pfh-joueur-a1-unimap-3 Pfh'Joueur]]. Various other mods, enhancements and maps are available [[http://www.simplici7y.com/ here]] (newer; backup archive is [[https://lochnits.com/s7/ here]]), [[http://fileball.whpress.com/ here]] or [[http://www.rising-studios.com/Marathon/fileball/Fileball%20Archive/marathon/ here]] (older), or [[http://archives.bungie.org/ here]] (oldest). For those willing to go down the emulation route (which is also necessary to run some of those old files), Macintosh Garden also has [[https://macintoshgarden.org/games/marathon-trilogy-box-set the Trilogy Box Set's Definitive Map Collection]], which contains around a thousand add-ons for the games. If you find yourself stuck, you can find completions of many of the mods [[https://youtube.com/c/MarathonVidmaster on YouTube]][[note]]This channel's primary curator is also one of the developers of mods such as ''Eternal'' and the upcoming re-release of ''Tempus Irae''[[/note]]. A massive number of terminals, maps, and even flowcharts showing how levels connect can be found [[https://lochnits.com/marathon/scenarios/ here]].

For those interested in mapping for Aleph One, meanwhile, the codirector of ''Eternal'' has put together a set of [[https://aaronfreed.github.io/aaronfreed/mapmaking.html mapping tips]] that may help, including a brief setup guide for Weland, the primary program now used for mapping.

*** 1.3 adds 5D space to the Cybernetic Junction room in [[spoiler:"Dread Not"]]; in the preview release, these also contain floating rings and discs. The creators have mentioned that the floating rings/discs won't appear in the final release in this form, as the Aleph One developers have said the trick used to create them will break in the forthcoming ANGLE renderer.[[labelnote:Mapmaking talk]]For the curious, the rings are created by setting the room's floor and ceiling (the outer layer of the room) at heights the player can't see, setting the next layer of polygons' floor at the lower bound of the lower ring (for our example, we'll use -1 WU) and its ceiling at the upper bound of the upper ring (e.g., 1 WU), texturing that layer with a completely transparent texture, creating a third layer of polygons with its floor at the upper bound of the bottom ring (e.g., -0.5 WU) and its ceiling at the lower bound of the upper ring (e.g., 0.5 WU), texturing that layer with an opaque texture, and then setting the inner part of the ring to have its floor at the lower bounds of the lower ring (e.g., -1 WU again) and its ceiling at the upper bounds of the upper ring (e.g., 1 WU again) and giving that a transparent texture. However, the creators also explicitly warn people not to duplicate this trick, as it'll break - they only used it in the preview because it's not the final release, and the ANGLE renderer hasn't been released yet. (The trick also doesn't work in software mode, but since, as of preview 2, the translucent windows in front of the rings and discs show up as solid in software mode, that's far from the biggest problem affecting that room. The developers don't seem to regard software mode as a high priority for a mod released in 2022 - the codirector says in the readme, "I don’t think anything will crash in software, but I haven’t tested it much," and "certain things will look very stupid.")[[/labelnote]]

* {{Anticlimax}}: ''Eternal'' 1.3 finally sets up a "boss battle" with [[spoiler:Hathor... that ultimately subverts almost all the expected characteristics of a boss battle. First off, Hathor has already undergone a HeelFaceTurn; she's just furious at us because (1) we erased most of her memories, and (2) we rejected a plan that she believes will save trillions of lives, unaware (because we erased most of her memories) that we rejected her plan because it would cause Earth's sun to go nova sixty-five million years ago. She acknowledges her temper is a massive character flaw and apologises for it. She's also not actually trying to kill us; she's firing the wave motion cannon at us to blow off steam, but anyone wielding a wave motion cannon or gravitronic blades (both of which we have) is completely immune to damage from either. (This information is conveyed to us in an earlier terminal from "Deep into the Grotto" that's framed in-game as a history of Jjaro arms control.) We also can't possibly hope to damage her; any time she takes damage in the game, the script restores her health to 32,767. (The apparent purposes of this are to cause her to play a "defending" animation when anything hits her, and to cause her to attack other monsters that hit her.)]]\\

*** It reuses several architectural elements of ''Marathon 2''. Beyond the most notable examples, listed below under NostalgiaLevel, the tower from "Eat It, Vid Boi!" reappears in "S'pht Happens", and also used to appear in "She Is the Dark One", but was excised for 1.2 in favour of a segment of "Bob's Big Date".[[note]]It was changed due to locational incongruity: it's physically connected to "Six Thousand Feet Under" via a staircase that can't possibly be long enough to lead to Lh'owon's surface. (1.2 substantially increased the staircase's height, and 1.3 increases it further still.) ''Marathon 2'' noted "Bob's Big Date" to be between Lh'owon's surface and the caves where "Six Thousand Feet Under" took place, so the developers stuck its central segment in as an EasterEgg and used its extreme tides throughout "She Is the Dark One".[[/note]]

*** 1.2 introduces another example with "Run, Coward!", which now reuses a couple of rooms from "Dread Not" for its ending. [[spoiler:This is a subtle bit of signposting: the end of "Run, Coward!" is exactly where the player needs to go in "Dread Not" to reach the successful timeline. The idea is that the player is trying to reach the Cybernetic Junction room, but gets teleported out before being able to do so.]]
*** One final example introduced in 1.2 is that "S'pht'ia" and "S'pht Happens" now have numerous additional cross-references to each other, beyond the ones present in the original release.
*** 1.3 adds two architectural nods to Mark V, the first release of ''Eternal'' that could be described as almost complete. 1.0, ''Eternal''[='=]s first ''entirely'' complete release, was a complete overhaul that outright replaced well over half of the levels in the game with completely new maps. 1.3 brings one part of Mark V back for a cameo: [[spoiler:what now comprises the CPU core in "Deep into the Grotto" was its Mark V counterpart's centre room. In earlier previews, "Echoes of Eden", which previously began in open space, started the player high above a more colourful version of the opening of "Fifth Floor, Men's Lingerie", its Mark V counterpart; however, that region has now been substantially revised to the point where the resemblance is fairly difficult to notice. (The "Fifth Floor" version was meant to stand in for a Franchise/{{halo}}, but because ''Halo''[='=]s connections to ''Marathon'' were dropped, ''Eternal''[='=]s plot underwent revisions, and what was previously a ring became something very much like a DysonSphere; thus, the opening of "Echoes of Eden" now is designed to look as spherical as the engine will allow (what with its levels being restricted to rectangular spaces).]]

** ''Eternal'' has Let Sleeping Gods Die ⇒ She Is the Dark One and We Met Once in the Garden ⇒ Where Giants Have Fallen at a bare minimum. S'pht'ia ⇒ S'pht Happens[[note]]a connection strengthened in 1.3[[/note]], Pissing on the Corporation ⇒ Burning Down the Corporation, Bug-Eyed in Space ⇒ Once More Unto the Breach..., (in 1.2 and onward) Dread Not ⇒ Run, Coward!, and (in 1.3, if you find a secret area in the latter) Remedial Chaos Theory ⇒ Core Done Blew could be considered ZigZagged examples, since they're not sequential, but nonetheless overlap a bit (or a lot).

*** "Once More Unto the Breach...": 12:20.

** In ''Eternal'', [[spoiler:Hathor performs one]] in chapter five - that is, [[spoiler:one version of her does. The reason we're not meant to side with her in "Deep into the Grotto" isn't that her intentions are malevolent; the issue is that we've [[NiceJobBreakingItHero erased so many of her memories]] that she no longer remembers anything about our solar system, and thus has no idea that the W'rkncacnter she intends to destroy with the ''nová praemátúrá'' is in fact in our solar system. Her HeelFaceTurn doesn't keep her from being ''furious'' with us in "We Met Once in the Garden" (to the extent that she is in a sense 1.3's closest equivalent of a "final boss"), but she herself acknowledges that she knows her temper is a massive character flaw and apologises for it, along with basically everything she'd done earlier in the game. To be fair, she has some understandable grievances with us by that point: in addition to rejecting her plan without explanation, we personally erased most of her memories, and she has no reason to think she'll ever recover them.]] (Per developer commentary, in the backstory linking ''Eternal'' and a planned (still unfinished) sequel, she [[spoiler:merges with a timeline duplicate (whom the developers call "Other Hathor") who retains nearly all of those memories, so in a sense, Hathor ultimately does recover them, but during "We Met Once in the Garden", she has no way of knowing that will happen; in fact, she probably doesn't even know Other Hathor exists. That said, the developers have also indicated that Hathor and Other Hathor effectively remain frenemies for some fifteen thousand years, since it takes Other Hathor that long to undergo her own HeelFaceTurn; thus, while the first Hathor in a sense eventually gets to know someone who retains those memories, that doesn't mean the latter will necessarily be ''forthcoming'' with them.]])

** "S'pht'ia" (based on "Eat It, Vid Boi!" and "The Hard Stuff Rules..."), "Let Sleeping Gods Die" (based on "Six Thousand Feet Under"), and (depending which version of the game you played) either "Flight of Icarus"[[note]]"Flames of Icarus" in earlier releases, but the lava was changed to water/sewage in version 1.2, so the name was changed accordingly[[/note]] (based on "My Own Private Thermopylae") or "...how deep the rabbit hole goes" (partly based on "My Own Private Thermopylae") in ''Eternal''. Additionally, starting in version 1.2, "She Is the Dark One" features sewage with the same kind of extreme tides you see in "Bob's Big Date" [[spoiler:and a segment of the level as a sort of EasterEgg.]] {{Justified|Trope}} because [[spoiler:you are two thousand years in the past of Lh'owon]].

** ''Eternal'' has a few: "S'pht'ia" is based on "Eat It, Vid Boi!" and "The Hard Stuff Rules"; "Let Sleeping Gods Die" is based on "Six Thousand Feet Under", "Flight of Icarus" (pre-1.3) is based on "My Own Private Thermopylae", "...how deep the rabbit hole goes..." (a composite level introduced in 1.3) is partly based on "My Own Private Thermopylae". A few other levels contain bits and pieces of other ''Marathon 2'' levels as well, but don't qualify as outright remixed levels; see NostalgiaLevel above.

*** The game (in 1.2.1 and onward) also treats [[spoiler:the Pfhor controller cyborgs in "Hysterical Womb"]] as a more primitive form of these, affecting [[spoiler:the S'pht and other cyborgs. If you kill the controller cyborgs and all enforcers on the level, the S'pht and all other cyborgs will rebel - though take care not to hit them with friendly fire.]]

** As of September 2022, ''Eternal'' 1.3 has several examples, often incorporating work from multiple arrangers, which the codirector has called "ProgressiveRock-style epics". These can all be found in Ogg Vorbis format on the Dropbox build linked on ''Eternal''[='=]s development page (navigate to Eternal-Data/Music), or a [[https://1drv.ms/u/s!AuD0MykSsmaRnUJawmCYx8my2zSS?e=ECcjQf FLAC release]] linked in the readme. For the sake of brevity, we'll restrict this list to examples over nine minutes long as of May 2023[[note]]there are an additional fourteen examples between six and nine minutes long[[/note]] and only list the level and the length of its respective music; the developers also have a [[https://1drv.ms/b/s!AuD0MykSsmaRogKoxid7o3QXrYBa?e=ZcC1Wg detailed track list]] with additional soundtrack metadata.

*** "Bug-Eyed in Space": 11:30.

*** "Once More Unto the Breach...": 9:35

*** "Bug-Eyed in Space": 10:44.

** The ''Apotheosis'' beta level "Eve of Orbit" has a map annotation labelled "Mba'eichapa dude?" "[[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mba%27eichapa Mba'eichapa]]" means "Hi" or "How are you?" in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guarani_language Guaraní]], an indigenous language of Paraguay. (Owing to a complicated development history, ''Eternal'' 1.3 inherits these annotations for "Eat S'pht and Die"; those interested may find a summary from one of ''Eternal''[='=]s developers [[https://youtu.be/-DUCyWrLoXc in this video's text description]].)

*** "La Parillada" is a slight misspelling of "La [[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/parrillada parrillada]]", which means "The barbecue". (The spelling is corrected in "Eat S'pht and Die".)

** "S'pht'ia" (based on "Eat It, Vid Boi!" and "The Hard Stuff Rules..."), "Let Sleeping Gods Die" (based on "Six Thousand Feet Under"), and "Flight of Icarus"[[note]]"Flames of Icarus" in earlier releases, but the lava was changed to water/sewage in version 1.2, so the name was changed accordingly[[/note]] (based on "My Own Private Thermopylae") in ''Eternal''. Additionally, starting in version 1.2, "She Is the Dark One" features sewage with the same kind of extreme tides you see in "Bob's Big Date" [[spoiler:and a segment of the level as a sort of EasterEgg.]] {{Justified|Trope}} because [[spoiler:you are two thousand years in the past of Lh'owon]].

** Depending on which the player played first, the ''Apotheosis'' beta and ''Eternal'' have another example with "Eve of Orbit" and "Eat S'pht and Die", the former of which is an expanded version of the latter. This is because the author of the level reworked it and submitted it to ''Apotheosis'' while ''Eternal'' was stagnating. ''Apotheosis X'' replaces it with the entirely new level "Ghost Hardware", which resulted in ''Eternal'' 1.3 adding the "Eve of Orbit" expansions to "Eat S'pht and Die".

** ''Eternal'' has a few: "S'pht'ia" is based on "Eat It, Vid Boi!" and "The Hard Stuff Rules"; "Let Sleeping Gods Die" is based on "Six Thousand Feet Under", and "Flight of Icarus" is based on "My Own Private Thermopylae". A few other levels contain bits and pieces of other ''Marathon 2'' levels as well, but don't qualify as outright remixed levels; see NostalgiaLevel above.

** WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility: Given her awareness of the above trope, [[spoiler:Leela explicitly rejects personally possessing a Cybernetic Junction throughout the game, even after travelling Outside (which could potentially provide her with even greater power), and even in the "good" ending of "Where Giants Have Fallen" where the galaxy is in the process of being destroyed, because she does not trust herself with such power. The "bad" ending of "The Philosophy of Time Travel" actually depicts how she could be corrupted, though, as she's starting to fall along the same "history must not be changed" lines as the rest of the ascended Jjaro. (She began displaying tendencies of this in "Flight of Icarus", where she claims that for her sanity's sake, history must be left alone for now.) Durandal even alludes to how "sweet Leela even trembles and pauses at the prospect" of changing history in the final level of the game]].

** "Run, Coward!": Movement 5 of "Fat Man" twice briefly quotes Music/Rush's "[[Music/MovingPicturesAlbum YYZ]]" and also paraphrases a section of Music/JohannSebastianBach's "StandardSnippet/ToccataAndFugueInDMinor".

*** Though it's not used in the game, there's also a bonus 26-minute mega-medley of "Splash (Marathon)" featuring arrangements by wowbobwow, Talashar, Cory King Tucker, Matrix_XV, Dan Storm, and Aaron Freed. (A previous mix ran for 21:12, which was clearly a nod to [[Music/TwentyOneTwelve a famous example]] of EpicRocking, especially given the musical references to "[[Music/MovingPictures YYZ]]" in Aaron's "Fat Man" arrangement; however, one of the movements in the "Splash" medley was later moved to "We Met Once in the Garden" and two additional arrangements were subsequently added in its place.)

* StandardSnippet: ''Eternal'' 1.3 includes several tributes to other musical works, all listed in its extensive documentation. Several of these are brief quotations, while a few are elements of a song's mix incorporated into another musical work. As of May 2023, the version of the OST on OneDrive and Dropbox includes:
** "Deja Vu All Over Again": Movement 2 of "Landing" interweaves electric piano from "A Glacier Eventually Farts (And Don't You Listen to the Song of Life" and some guitar parts and synth leads from "The Rain Formerly Known as Purple" from Chris Christodoulou's ''VideoGame/RiskOfRain2'' soundtrack.

** "Unlucky Pfhor Some": Movement 2 of "Freedom" features two brief quotes of "Linus and Lucy" from Music/VinceGuaraldi's famous ''Franchise/{{Peanuts}}'' soundtracks.
** "Run, Coward!": Movement 5 of "Fat Man" contains two brief quotations of Music/Rush's "[[Music/MovingPictures YYZ]]" and Music/JohannSebastianBach's "StandardSnippet/ToccataAndFugueInDMinor".
** "Once More Unto the Breach...": Movement 2 of "Freedom" briefly quotes the famous main theme of Music/EnnioMorricone's ''Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly'' soundtrack.
** "We Met Once in the Garden": The climax of "Splash (Marathon)" briefly quotes "Series/DoctorWho" by Ron Grainer and Delia Derbyshire.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: In ''Istoria'', [[spoiler:seemingly ''no one'' has a kind word to say about Wasserman - the closest anyone musters to a defense of him is "Sometimes people just take issue with authority."]]

* '''''Istoria''''': Essentially ''Marathon'' with elements of role-playing games, [[https://lochnits.com/marathon/istoria/ released]] on April 29, 2023. The gameplay is significantly different than typical ''Marathon'' gameplay, as player selects a class at the start of the game that has an active ability (which the player may activate at specific times) and a passive ability (which is always active), carries an inventory of powerups, and gains the ability to cast spells. Scripting by Wrkncacnter (of ''Yuge'' and ''Aleph One: Pathways into Darkness'') and Jon Irons; level design by windbreaker (see ''Yuge'' above and several net map collections below); soundtrack by Jon Irons. Trailer [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LvxjTw8rjk here]]; soundtrack available on [[https://music.jonirons.net/album/istoria Bandcamp]] (24-bit FLAC), the [[https://archive.org/details/istoria-soundtrack Internet Archive]] (Ogg Vorbis), or [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXuOVl4zA_E YouTube]] (streaming).

** As of September 2022, ''Eternal'' 1.3 has several examples, often incorporating work from multiple arrangers, which the codirector has called "ProgressiveRock-style epics". These can all be found in Ogg Vorbis format on the Dropbox build linked on ''Eternal''[='=]s development page (navigate to Eternal-Data/Music), or a [[https://1drv.ms/u/s!AuD0MykSsmaRnUJawmCYx8my2zSS?e=ECcjQf FLAC release]] linked in the readme. For the sake of brevity, we'll restrict this list to examples over nine minutes long[[note]]as of early February 2023, there are an additional eleven examples between six and nine minutes long[[/note]] and only list the level and the length of its respective soundtrack; the developers also have a [[https://1drv.ms/b/s!AuD0MykSsmaRogKoxid7o3QXrYBa?e=ZcC1Wg detailed track list]] with additional soundtrack metadata.

*** "Enantiodromia" (formerly "Hysterical Womb"): 12:00.

*** "We Met Once in the Garden": 10:53 in-game (11:36 OST).

*** "Bug-Eyed in Space": 9:34.

*** Lastly, a few specific movements would qualify for EpicRocking all by themselves: as mentioned above, Talashar's "Aerival" (11:55) and Aaron Freed's "What About Bob?" (8:19), plus Solar-Tron's "New Pacific Hfarl" (7:25 in-game, 8:00 OST), Aaron's "Flowers in Heaven" (6:08), and Talashar's "Bungie Cyber-Thrash Medley" (6:04).

* '''''Istoria''''': Essentially ''Marathon'' with elements of role-playing games, [[https://lochnits.com/marathon/istoria/ released]] on April 29, 2023. Scripting by Wrkncacnter (of ''Yuge'' and ''Aleph One: Pathways into Darkness''); level design by windbreaker (see ''Yuge'' above and several net map collections below); soundtrack by Jon Irons. Trailer [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LvxjTw8rjk here]]; soundtrack available on [[https://music.jonirons.net/album/istoria Bandcamp]] (24-bit FLAC), the [[https://archive.org/details/istoria-soundtrack Internet Archive]] (Ogg Vorbis), or [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXuOVl4zA_E YouTube]] (streaming).

* '''''Aleph One: VideoGame/PathwaysIntoDarkness''''': ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: A surprisingly faithful port of Creator/{{Bungie}}'s precursor to ''Marathon'' to the Aleph One engine. This is the only way to play it on Windows or Linux without breaking out the emulators. This was mostly done by Wrkncacnter (who's also the main person behind ''Yuge''). Available [[https://simplici7y.com/items/aleph-one-pathways-into-darkness on Simplici7y]]. Make sure to read the readme before playing this. There are also optional [[https://simplici7y.com/items/aleph-one-pathways-into-darkness-remastered-sounds remastered sounds]] and [[https://simplici7y.com/items/hd-aopid-graphics AI upscaled graphics]].

** The 2022 re-release of ''Tempus Irae'' is also planned to incorporate remastered theme music and remastered and/or remixed sounds (drawing from the Sound Ideas library where possible).

* DysonSphere: The ''Arx'' (or Sphere in older releases) in ''Eternal''. In early drafts of ''Eternal''[='=]s story, it was actually a [[Franchise/{{Halo}} Halo]], but this was revised when it became clear that most of the connections between ''Marathon'' and ''Halo'' had been written out of the latter's story. [[The ''Arx'' still plays a somewhat comparable role in the plot, however.]]

* OverlyLongGag: The GratuitousLatin in ''Eternal'' might not start out that way, but the Latin translation of the ''entire'' "I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh" terminal in "The Near Side of Everywhere", which goes on for some four pages, probably qualifies as an example. See GratuitousLatin.MarathonExpandedUniverse for the full extent of ''Eternal''[='=]s Latin.

* OminousLatinChanting: As of 1.3 preview 5, ''Eternal'' 1.3 adds some in the soundtrack for "Run, Coward!" - using classical four-part harmony[[note]]as much as you can get with a twelve-bar blues progression, at least - V-IV progressions are proscribed in classical harmony but are central to blues music and, by extension, modern popular music as a whole[[/note]] and actual Latin, no less. Although the OST isn't complete yet, the creators have made a prototype available [[https://1drv.ms/u/s!AuD0MykSsmaRnUJawmCYx8my2zSS?e=ECcjQf here]] (the track in question is track 36, and the chanting appears at about 6:49 into the track). The music for "The Near Side of Everywhere" also has Latin vocals and employs classical four-part harmony in its introduction, but ||this time it's less "ominous" and more "expression of regret"||.

** The ''Trojan'' Director's Cut also features [[https://youtu.be/bKQnv8zg8rk remastered music]] and sounds with reduced clipping distortion. (FLAC download in the video description.)
** ''Phoenix'' 1.4 features [[https://youtu.be/KczNQR_K5Qc remastered music]] (FLAC download in the video description).

*** ''Eternal'' 1.3 either plays this straight or averts it depending on circumstances. In the remakes of "To Sleep, Perchance to Dream", "The World Is Hollow", "The Land in the Sky", and "Floating in the Void", jumping off the mountain sends you to the final terminal, just as jumping down the well did in previous versions (and still does). In [[https://youtu.be/bQkb4Nm6s2g the remake of "Where Giants Have Fallen"]], this has been handled in a few different ways. In the latest release (1.3 preview 4), falling off the mountain kills you [[spoiler:unless you've hit a secret switch after inserting the chip: once you do that, jumping off the mountain gives you 3x shields and teleports you to a secret credit terminal, which in turn teleports you back to the top of the mountain.]] If you're playing co-op and happen to have an uplink chip, the game strips your inventory except for the uplink chip, kills you, and ''then'' teleports your corpse (with the chip) to the start of the level - this is to avoid locking the game, since it's necessary to insert a chip at the top of the level to complete it.

** As of September 2022, ''Eternal'' 1.3 has several examples, often incorporating work from multiple arrangers, which the codirector has called "ProgressiveRock-style epics". These can all be found in Ogg Vorbis format on the Dropbox build linked on ''Eternal''[='=]s development page (navigate to Eternal-Data/Music), or a [[https://1drv.ms/u/s!AuD0MykSsmaRnUJawmCYx8my2zSS?e=ECcjQf FLAC release]] the developers have made available through Discord. For the sake of brevity, we'll restrict this list to examples over nine minutes long[[note]]as of early February 2023, there are an additional eleven examples between six and nine minutes long[[/note]] and only list the level and the length of its respective soundtrack; the developers also have a [[https://1drv.ms/b/s!AuD0MykSsmaRogKoxid7o3QXrYBa?e=ZcC1Wg detailed track list]] with additional soundtrack metadata.

* AbusivePrecursors: In ''Apotheosis'' [[spoiler:The Angels have a similar backstory to the S'pht, but with a darker outcome: They were uplifted by Yrro and Pthia, who then left, and the Angels dutifully maintained and expanded their works. But then Yrro returned, alone and driven to madness by Pthia's death, and devastated them for reasons the Angels could not fathom, sowing the deep-seated hatred for their forefather in the process that drives the events of the mod. This is presented via the Bible passage-like terminals, specificially the Book of Genesis, on the map called The Salt Pile.]]