All your base are belong to us

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 This article contains Japanese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of kanji and kana.
The phrase is a piece of subtitled dialogue from the introduction to Zero Wing.

"All your base are belong to us" (often shortened to "All Your Base", "AYBABTU", or simply "AYB") is a broken English phrase that sparked an Internet phenomenon, or meme, in 2001 and 2002, with the spread of a Flash animation that depicted the slogan. The text is taken from the opening cut scene of the European Sega Mega Drive version of Zero Wing,[1] a Japanese video game by Toaplan which was rushed in production and as a result was poorly translated into English. It was popularized by the Something Awful message forums.[2]

Contents

[edit] Transcript and translations

[edit] Game transcript

A summarized GIF animation of the scene.
In A.D. 2101
War was beginning.
Captain: What happen ?
Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb.
Operator: We get signal.
Captain: What !
Operator: Main screen turn on.
Captain: It's you !!
CATS: How are you gentlemen !!
CATS: All your base are belong to us.
CATS: You are on the way to destruction.
Captain: What you say !!
CATS: You have no chance to survive make your time.
CATS: Ha ha ha ha....
Operator: Captain !! *
Captain: Take off every 'ZIG'!!
Captain: You know what you doing.
Captain: Move 'ZIG'.
Captain: For great justice.

* This line and those following it are not in some animated GIF/Flash versions seen on the Internet. They may also be included within the song lyrics of the animated Flash movie.

[edit] Original Japanese text

It appears from the original text that CATS may be the name of an organization, not just of the particular cyborg villain appearing on the screen.[1]

西暦2101年
戦いは始まった。
艦長：一体どうしたと言んだ [sic]！
機関士：何者かによって、爆発物が仕掛けられたようです。
通信士：艦長！通信が入りました！
艦長：なにっ！
通信士：メインスクリーンにビジョンが来ます。
艦長：おっお前は！！
CATS：おいそがしそうだね、諸君。
CATS：連邦政府軍のご協力により、君達の基地は、全てCATSがいただいた。
CATS：君達の艦も、そろそろ終わりだろう。
艦長：ばっばかなっ・・・！
CATS：君達のご協力には感謝する。
CATS：せいぜい残り少ない命を、大切にしたまえ・・・・。
CATS：ハッハッハッハッハッ・・・
通信士：艦長・・・。
艦長：ZIG全機に発進命令！！
艦長：もう彼らに託すしかない・・。
艦長：我々の未来に希望を・・・
艦長：たのむぞ。ZIG！！

[edit] Proper translation

AD 2101―
War has begun.
Captain: What was that?
Engineer: Someone has planted a bomb in the ship!
Communication operator: Captain! Receiving transmission!
Captain: Eh?!
Communication operator: Visual incoming on the main screen.
Captain: Y...You!
CATS: (You) Look busy, gentlemen.
CATS: Assisted by the Federation Government forces, CATS has taken all of your bases.
CATS: Your ship is about to meet its doom as well.
Captain: What did you say ?!
CATS: We are thankful for your cooperation.
CATS: Cherish these few remaining moments of your lives.
CATS: Ha ha ha ha ha...
Communication operator: Captain....
Captain: (I) Order launching all ZIG units!
Captain: We have no choice but to entrust this to them....
Captain: The hope of our future...
Captain: (We're) Counting on you, ZIG!

[edit] Media references

 Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (March 2009)
The phrase on U.S. Route 50 in Nevada


The phrase or some variation of lines from the game has appeared in articles, books, comics, clothing, movies, radio shows, songs, television shows, video games, webcomics, and websites.

  • In late 2000, Kansas City computer programmer and part-time DJ Jeffrey Ray Roberts, then aged 23, from the Gabber band The Laziest Men on Mars made a techno dance track, "Invasion of the Gabber Robots", which remixed some of the Zero Wing video game music by Tatsuya Uemura with a voiceover phrase "All your base are belong to us."[3]
  • On February 23, 2001, Wired provided an early report on the phenomenon, covering it from the Flash animation to its spread through e-mail and Internet forums to T-shirts bearing the phrase.[4]
  • On April 1, 2003, in Sturgis, Michigan, seven people aged 17 to 20 placed signs all over town that read, "All your base are belong to us. You have no chance to survive make your time." They claimed to be playing an April Fool's joke, but most people who saw the signs were unfamiliar with the phrase. Many residents were upset that the signs appeared while the U.S. was at war with Iraq, and police chief Eugene Alli said the signs could be "a borderline terrorist threat depending on what someone interprets it to mean."[5]
  • In February 2004, North Carolina State University students and members of The Wolf Web in Raleigh, North Carolina exploited a web-based service provided for local schools and businesses to report a weather-related closing to display the phrase within a news ticker on a live news broadcast on News 14 Carolina.[6]
  • On June 1, 2006, the video hosting website YouTube was taken down temporarily for maintenance. The phrase "ALL YOUR VIDEO ARE BELONG TO US" appeared below the YouTube logo as a placeholder while the site was down. Some users believed the site had been hacked, leading the host to add the message "No, we haven't been hacked. Get a sense of humor."[7]
  • On April 1, 2009, a variation of this phrase appeared on Google's CADIE joke site as, "All your web sites are belong to me." Another variation appeared within their April 1st, 2008 Virgle Mars Colony hoax, along with other Google's Hoaxes.


[edit] See also

[edit] References

Sister project Wikimedia Commons has media related to: All your base are belong to us
Sister project Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Zero Wing
  1. ^ a b Alex Tufty Ashman (2007-02-13). "All Your Base Are Belong To Us". h2g2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A19147205. Retrieved on 2008-02-04. 
  2. ^ Julian Dibbell (2008-01-18). "Mutilated Furries, Flying Phalluses: Put the Blame on Griefers, the Sociopaths of the Virtual World". Wired. p. 2. http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/magazine/16-02/mf_goons?currentPage=2. Retrieved on 2008-01-18. 
  3. ^ Taylor, Chris (2001-02-25). "All Your Base Are Belong To Us". http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,100525,00.html. Retrieved on 2007-06-29. 
  4. ^ Benner, Jeffrey (2001-02-23). "When Gamer Humor Attacks". http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2001/02/42009. Retrieved on 2006-05-15. 
  5. ^ Doyle, Holly (2003-04-04). "Men arrested for 'All Your Base' prank". WWMT — Digital Channel 3. http://www.wwmt.com/news/sturgis_468___article.html/security_thought.html. Retrieved on 2006-06-17. 
  6. ^ Poulsen, Kevin (2004-03-05). "Wags hijack TV channel's on-screen ticker". The Register. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/03/05/wags_hijack_tv_channels_onscreen/. Retrieved on 2006-05-15. 
  7. ^ Sandoval, Greg (2006-06-02). "YouTube: Our humor, not our hack". CNET News.com. http://news.cnet.com/YouTube-Humor,-not-hack/2100-1026_3-6079314.html. Retrieved on 2006-06-02. 

[edit] External links

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