All your base are belong to us

"All your base are belong to us" is a popular Internet meme based on a phrase found in the opening cutscene of the European release of the 1992 Mega Drive/Genesis port of the 1989 arcade video game Zero Wing, which is subtitled and poorly translated.

The phrase as it appears in the introduction to Zero Wing.

The meme developed from this in the early 2000s, as the result of a GIF animation depicting the opening text, which was initially popularized on the Something Awful message forums.[1]

Examples from the transcript
For the full English-language transcript, see the quotations related to Zero Wing at Wikiquote
Original script[2] English version of the game[3][lower-alpha 1] Basic translation from Japanese[4]
機関士：何者（なにもの）かによって、爆発物（ばくはつぶつ）が仕掛（しか）けられたようです。 Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb. Engineer: It appears someone has planted explosives.
通信士：メインスクリーンにビジョンが来（き）ます。 Operator: Main screen turn on. Communications Operator: Incoming visual on the main screen.
CATS：連邦政府（れんぽうせいふ）軍（ぐん）のご協力（きょうりょく）により、君達（きみたち）の基地（きち）は、全（すべ）てCATSがいただいた。 CATS: All your base are belong to us. CATS: With the help of Federation government forces, CATS has taken all of your bases.
CATS：せいぜい残（のこ）り少（すく）ない命（いのち）を、大切（たいせつ）にしたまえ・・・・。 CATS: You have no chance to survive make your time. CATS: Treasure what little time you have left to live...
艦長：たのむぞ。ZIG！！ Captain: Move 'ZIG'. Captain: We’re counting on you, ZIGs!!
艦長：我（われ）々（われ）の未来（みらい）に希望（きぼう）を・・・ Captain: For great justice. Captain: May there be hope for our future…

Mentions in media

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

In November 2000, Kansas City computer programmer, Something Awful forum member, and part-time disc jockey Jeffrey Ray Roberts (1977-2011) of 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 voice-over phrase "All your base are belong to us".[5] Tribal War forums member Bad_CRC in February 2001 created a video combining Roberts' song and the various images created in a Something Awful AYB photoshop thread, which proceeded to go viral.

On February 23, 2001, Wired provided an early report on the phenomenon, covering it from the Flash animation to its spread through email and Internet forums to T-shirts bearing the phrase.[6]

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".[7]

In February 2004, North Carolina State University students and members of TheWolfWeb in Raleigh, North Carolina exploited a web-based service used by local schools and businesses to report weather-related closures to display the phrase within a news ticker on a live news broadcast on News 14 Carolina.[8]

On June 1, 2006, 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 YouTube to add the message "No, we haven't be [sic] hacked. Get a sense of humor."[9]

On January 19, 2019, American Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Democrat from New York) tweeted "All your base (are) belong to us" in response to a poll by Hill–HarrisX that 45% of polled Republicans approved of Ocasio-Cortez's suggested implementation of a 70% marginal tax rate for individuals making over $10 million per year.[10]

See also

Footnotes
  1. Original broken English translation as it appeared in the released video game.

References
  1. Dibbell, Julian (2008-01-18). "Mutilated Furries, Flying Phalluses: Put the Blame on Griefers, the Sociopaths of the Virtual World". Wired.
  2. Toaplan (31 May 1991). Zero Wing (Sega Mega Drive) (in Japanese). Taito. Scene: Intro sequence.
  3. Toaplan (1992). Zero Wing (Sega Mega Drive). Taito. Scene: Intro scene.
  4. Mandelin, Clyde (2014-01-13). "How Zero Wing's "All Your Base" Translation Compares with the Japanese Script". Legends of Localization. Archived from the original on 2020-09-22. Retrieved 2020-09-17.
  5. Taylor, Chris (2001-02-25). "All Your Base Are Belong To Us". Time. Archived from the original on 21 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-29.
  6. Benner, Jeffrey (2001-02-23). "When Gamer Humor Attacks". Wired.
  7. Doyle, Holly (2003-04-04). "Men arrested for "All Your Base" prank". WWMT NEWSCHANNEL 3. Archived from the original on 29 August 2010. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
  8. Poulsen, Kevin (2004-03-05). "Wags hijack TV channel's on-screen ticker". The Register. Archived from the original on 25 May 2006. Retrieved 2006-05-15.
  9. Sandoval, Greg (2006-06-02). "YouTube: Our humor, not our hack". CNET News. Archived from the original on 2014-05-06.
  10. Cole, Brendan. "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Tax Rate Plans Find Favor Among Republicans, She Responds with Retro Meme". Newsweek. Newsweek. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
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