I was watching a 1930 Soviet documentary about Ushguli called Salt for Svanetia. Around the 45 minute mark, when it naturally transitions into pure propaganda, there are background vocals identical to the original Mongols theme, and I mean identical. Apparently the soundtrack in the version on YouTube wasn’t added until 1970, so it isn’t original, but it’s still much earlier than AoE2.
I’m honestly not super surprised at the revelation, because the original Goths theme is also stock music; I remember hearing it in Lord of the Rings Online of all things.
Suddenly, DoI using stock music for civ themes doesn’t seem so bad.
I remember when I beat a particular boss in Persona 4 Golden for the first time, the sound he made had me basically doing the Leo DiCaprio meme, because it was identical to the death sound of the first enemy fought in one of my favorite games, Phantasy Star Online, except not cut off. That sound is practically ingrained in my consciousness due to spending many hours on the first level as a kid, so I could recognize it anywhere.
I’ve always had an uncanny gift to recognize sound effects and music samples anywhere, as well as recognizing actors.
I just heard a whole bunch of stock horse sounds in the show Blue Bloods, and I think most or all of them were used in AoE2 either currently or at some point. It was a bit surreal to hear them outside of the game, that’s for sure.