History Main / TechnoWreckage

* More or less everywhere in ''VideoGame/TheDig''.

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order.

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[[caption-width-right:272:[[AC: It's been a loooooong time.]]]]

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[[folder:Film - Live-Action]]
* ''Film/StarTrekGenerations''. The Amargosa observatory is Techno Wreckage after the Romulans get through with it.
* In ''Franchise/StarWars'', Coruscant is essentially a pristine ultra-hi-tech city standing on a layer of decaying buildings and destroyed electrical conduits. Nar Shaddaa is even more so, in that even its highest levels aren't pristine at all, and the decay starts from the second level downwards -- the lowest levels are filled with sewage, destroyed pipework and mutant abominations.
** Also the ScavengerWorld of Jakku, with the destroyed and partially salvaged Star Destroyers and AT-AT walkers that litter the landscape.
* These sorts of wreckages are strewn about the New Zealand film ''Film/TheQuietEarth'' in its visual composition, and also affect the plot...or action, however little there is.

* In one of the ''Literature/{{Norby}}'' books, the titular robot and his companion end up prisoners in an underwater city belonging to the enigmatic Invaders. After a few adventures they end up accessing the deeper, forbidden levels of the city, where they find that not only is the whole area long abandoned, in severe disrepair and leaking all over the place, but the survival of the newer side of the city is entirely dependent on the progressively failing machinery housed in the old area. The Invaders go [[OhCrap "uh-oh"]].

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':

** Hive cities are continent-sprawling [[MegaCity Mega Cities]] that are built up on the wreckage and detritus of previous infrastructure. This creates vast "underhives" in the lowermost reaches of the city -- networks of caverns and tunnels formed by dilapidated machinery and architecture, which are populated by the poor and outcast of common hive society.
* The 1st Edition ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' adventures ''Annic Nova'' and ''Death Ship'', with the title derelict ships which the {{PC}}s explore.
* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Morrow_Project The Morrow Project]]'' adventure ''Prime Base''. The {{PC}}s must enter and restore the title base to working order.

* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' has the Ocean Lab, where after Illuminati sabotage half the place is submerged, turrets automatically fire at anything and can't be turned off (in the rest of the game they only attack after an alarm activates) and [=MJ12=] experiments have been released from their cages. [[spoiler:Walton Simons]] who follows you here, is the only human (at least, living human) other than JC Denton in the whole underwater segment.
** ''VideoGame/TheNamelessMod'' has both Shadowcode's level and '''D'''eus E'''x''' '''I'''ncarnate. The first is one that you are actually trying to shut it down completely. The 2nd [[HailfirePeaks also contains]] [[LethalLavaLand lava]] and [[UndergroundLevel is underground]].
* Many of the levels in ''VideoGame/MegaManZero''
* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}''
** The abandoned ship in ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' is a typical example, with everything listed above. It even lives up to its title of "the ghost ship" by having an actual ''ghost'' living in it as the area boss!
** The crashed Space Pirate frigate in ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'', and the GFS ''Valhalla'' in ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption''. The ''Valhalla'' probably takes the cake among the three as far as scariness goes, what with freaktastic music, corpses everywhere (with scans revealing how they died), dreadful Phazon monsters in every room, and more Metroids in this one area than has been seen in the entire franchise except possibly Tourian in the original game.
** The B.S.L of ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' starts becoming Techno Wreckage the longer Samus is there, culminating in her [[ColonyDrop ramming it into a planet.]] Worse, the WHOLE game takes place inside it.

* Techno Wreckage has become increasingly prominent in the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series. In the first game, only a couple of areas (a nuked military research complex, and the defunct Vaults) appeared - most of the action was out in the ScavengerWorld beyond. ''VideoGame/Fallout2'' revisited those zones as well as adding another subterranean military compound, the wreckage of an Air Force base, and a dilapidated oil tanker. The more recent games visit formerly-high-tech areas much more often, in part because the advances in graphics make them sadder and creepier. Probably the best spot in any of the games to find an ApocalypticLog.
* The Tower of Geddon from ''VideoGame/ChronoCross''.
* Several environments in ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' probably qualify, as well, including every time you visit Militia.
* Both ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' games consist entirely of Techno Wreckage, except for when you enter a WombLevel ''inside'' a Techno Wreckage, and when you hack in {{cyberspace}}, from an interface ''in'' the Techno Wreckage.
* ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'' has a very light version of this in the early areas of the [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon final dungeon]]. As these outer areas have been exposed to the elements for centuries, they have decayed dramatically. the deeper you go, the more clean and pristine the tech becomes.
* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'':
** All of the BadFuture stages in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD'' are a result of Dr. Robotnik taking over the Little Planet.
** The Lost Colony stage in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' is the first stage in the Dark storyline to take place aboard the derelict ARK station.
* Possibly averted in ''VideoGame/LaMulana'', where most of the ruins are...well, in ruins, but one of the few areas not in ruins--the Tower of the Goddess--appears to be a high-tech area in pristine condition with futuristic interior lighting and even monitor screens still running. The Tower of Ruin fits this trope better.
* The abandoned gas mines on Ord Ibanna in ''VideoGame/StarWarsEpisodeIRacer'', which also qualify as a WorldInTheSky.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}} Gaiden'', one level takes place in a wrecked Bacterian Mothership.
* The Derelict Ship in ''VideoGame/TheAdventuresOfRadGravity''.

* The Space Junk Galaxy in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' is a [[SubvertedTrope subversion]]. It's a deep space debris field that feels peaceful and idyllic, having its own UnkemptBeauty.
* ''VideoGame/Portal2'' starts with the first game's Enrichment Center in this state (thanks to the Chell and the player last time round, and an indefinite period of neglect), though [=GLaDOS=] clears up a lot of it during Act One.
* One of the early dungeons of ''VideoGame/{{Opoona}}'' is the destroyed wreckage of a dome that's been overrun with monsters.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' has Lanayru Desert, which had been a bustling center of technology in the past. Now the robot [=NPCs=] are nonfunctioning, the advanced tech doesn't work, and sand is everywhere. The repowering puzzles consist of turning back time to when the machinery was working.
* ''VideoGame/{{Dogyuun}}'' has stage 8, complete with robot flies, half-destroyed mecha, and the boss is a large [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot undead mecha]].
* ''VideoGame/PerfectDark'' has the Battle Shrine, which has inconsistent lighting and exposed wires inside. You have to reactive the generator in order to progress through a door.
* World 7 of ''VideoGame/TheSecondRealityProject 2'' has become this as of the [[VideoGameRemake remake]]. The premise behind it is that it's Bowser's base from ''The Second Reality Project Reloaded'' (as seen in the levels "The Launch Base" and "Docking Bay"), decayed and infested with Boos.

* In ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot1996'', the entire first half of the third and final world counts as this. Especially [[BleakLevel Generator Room]].

* ''VideoGame/GhostbustersTheVideoGame'' has Shandor Island. Granted, it's not high-tech by our 21st Century standards, but Egon notes that Ivo Shandor was considered ''the'' paranormal expert of his time. There's a lot of fun stuff to look out for here, like open vats of highly toxic black slime (with ghosts and other assorted beasties emerging from the Black Slime portals), cosmic machinery powered by said slime, loads of Iron Maidens, and an astral orrery [[spoiler: with a Juvenile Giant Sloar imprisoned underneath. If that's a Juvenile Sloar, you'd hate to see how big they get when fully grown...]]
* ''VideoGame/TheWitness'': All those wires and discarded panels scattered around the island definitely give this vibe, [[spoiler:which only gets increased when you enter inside the mountain]].

* The space station you enter in ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation'' is in really bad shape because it is in the process of being decommissioned. Sections of it are disabled or missing, broken panels and exposed cables are all around.
* Most of ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3'' is set in environments like these, with the first chapters playing out aboard a fleet of derelict spaceships in orbit of a planet called Tau Volantis, followed by much of the rest of the game taking place in the ruins of the military expedition that explored the planet centuries before [[PlayerCharacter Isaac]] and his team made planetfall there. Considering that the ''Dead Space'' franchise is firmly rooted in survival horror, it shouldn't come as a surprise that just about everything in the trope description is played straight to the hilt.
* Almost every region in ''Earthlock: Festival of Magic'' has some kind of ruins with advanced technology, though unlike normal examples of this trope, most cases have a SchizoTech look, with ancient-looking architecture and building materials but futuristic layouts and defense systems. Only the ruins in [[ThirstyDesert Burning Desert]] and [[NotSoSafeHarbor Anu]] actually look as advanced as they are.
* Many of the places you visit in ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'' are like this. The game takes place in the distant future and the decaying wreckage of places like Norad and Denver and US Robot Command are visited and are the wreckage of the Old Ones.
* Play ''VideoGame/ThePersistence'' if you love the sight of derelict spaceships filled with scattered wiring and misplaced floorboards!

* Possibly averted in ''VideoGame/LaMulana'', where most of the ruins are...well, in ruins, but one of the few areas not in ruins--the [[spoiler:Tower of the Goddess]]--appears to be a high-tech area in pristine condition with futuristic interior lighting and even monitor screens still running. The Tower of Ruin fits this trope better.

* Several environments in ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' probably qualify, as well, including every time you visit Miltia.

* The Lost Colony stage in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2''.
** Every BadFuture stages in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD'' are a result of Dr. Robotnik taking over the Little Planet.

* ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'' starts with the first game's Enrichment Center in this state (thanks to the Chell and the player last time round, and an indefinite period of neglect), though [=GLaDOS=] clears up a lot of it during Act One.

* Many of the places you visit in ''HorizonZeroDawn'' are like this. The game takes place in the distant future and the decaying wreckage of places like Norad and Denver and US Robot Command are visited and are the wreckage of the Old Ones.

* ''The Secret of the Nautilus'', a sequel to ''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'', is set in the abandoned ''Nautilus'', the only humans being the player and a madman trying to bring it down.
* In one of the ''{{Norby}}'' books, the titular robot and his companion end up prisoners in an underwater city belonging to the enigmatic Invaders. After a few adventures they end up accessing the deeper, forbidden levels of the city, where they find that not only is the whole area long abandoned, in severe disrepair and leaking all over the place, but the survival of the newer side of the city is entirely dependent on the progressively failing machinery housed in the old area. The Invaders go [[OhCrap "uh-oh"]].

** Space Hulks are Techno Wreckage {{Ghost Ship}}s, formed from countless vessels and asteroids that have been crunched together in an amorphous mass by the currents of [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace the warp]]. They're usually filled with hostile creatures like orks and genestealers, so their appearance in realspace is always cause for great concern.

* ''VideoGame/{{Shantae}} and the Pirate's Curse'' has the Abandoned Factory found in [[SlippySlideyIceWorld Frostbite Island]], which has rusted and frozen over machinery, various kinds of robots, and {{Inconveniently Placed Conveyor Belt}}s.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''[='s=] Space Hulks are Techno Wreckage {{Ghost Ship}}s.

* The Space Station from ''VideoGame/JetForceGemini''. This wrecked station perpetually orbits Goldwood, the tribal's homeworld, and feels like an hybrid between ''Franchise/{{Aliens}}'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-xr5BcXIF0 The music sets the mood perfectly]].

[[folder: Film ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]
* In ''ComicStrip/DickTracy'', while reports of [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe Moon Maid]] sightings are circulating, Dick, his granddaughter Honeymoon, and their GadgeteerGenius friend Diet Smith secretly return to Moon Valley for the first time since TheSixties, only to find it completely abandoned, in ruins and lacking oxygen. Diet explains that when the Moon Governor banished the Earthlings, he had many Space Coups in production. With the Space Coups on the moon missing as well, Diet assumes the Moon People left for another place, with no way to track them.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tabletop Game ]]

[[folder: Video Game ]]

!!Examples

* Techno Wreckage has become increasingly prominent in the ''VideoGame/Fallout'' series. In the first game, only a couple of areas (a nuked military research complex, and the defunct Vaults) appeared - most of the action was out in the ScavengerWorld beyond. ''VideoGame/Fallout2'' revisited those zones as well as adding another subterranean military compound, the wreckage of an Air Force base, and a dilapidated oil tanker. The more recent games visit formerly-high-tech areas much more often, in part because the advances in graphics make them sadder and creepier. Probably the best spot in any of the games to find an ApocalypticLog.

* The Glow in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 1}}'' is a typical example, with no other [=NPCs=] except the security bots (that are inactive for the most part, and can be turned off at the same console the power is activated through) and a friendly computer AI (that provides some interesting back story) ''and'' it's highly radioactive all around (lingering to play chess with the AI is considered harmful). The two abandoned vaults also qualify. The Sierra army depot in the sequel also qualifies.
** ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' provide more abandoned vaults, alongside with {{Apocalyptic Log}}s to detail exactly how bad things went.

* In ''Franchise/StarWars'', Coruscant is essentially a pristine ultra-hi-tech city standing on a layer of decaying buildings and destroyed electrical conduits. Nar Shaddaa is even more so, in that even its highest levels aren't pristine at all, and the decay starts from the second level downwards - the lowest levels are filled with sewage, destroyed pipework and mutant abominations.

* In one of the ''{{Norby}}'' books, the titular robot and his companion end up prisoner in an underwater city belonging to the enigmatic Invaders. After a few adventures they end up accessing the deeper, forbidden levels of the city, where they find that not only is the whole area long abandoned, in severe disrepair and leaking all over the place, but the survival of the newer side of the city is entirely dependant on the progressively failing machinery housed in the old area. The Invaders go [[OhCrap "uh-oh"]].

* In ''ComicStrip/DickTracy'', while reports of [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe Moon Maid]] sightings were circulating, Dick, his granddaughter Honeymoon, and their GadgeteerGenius friend Diet Smith secretly return to Moon Valley for the first time since TheSixties, only to find it completely abandoned, in ruins and lacking oxygen. Diet explains that when the Moon Governor banished the Earthlings, he had many Space Coups in production. With the Space Coups on the moon misssing as well, Diet assumes the Moon People had left for another place, with no way to track them.

* ''Film/{{Ghostbusters}}'' has Shandor Island. Granted, it's not high-tech by our 21st Century standards, but Egon notes that Ivo Shandor was considered ''the'' paranormal expert of his time. There's a lot of fun stuff to look out for here, like open vats of highly toxic black slime (with ghosts and other assorted beasties emerging from the Black Slime portals), cosmic machinery powered by said slime, loads of Iron Maidens, and an astral orrery [[spoiler: with a Juvenile Giant Slor imprisoned underneath. If that's a Juvenile Slor, you'd hate to see how big they get when fully grown...]]