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 line 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 was central to an Internet phenomenon, or meme, in 2000–2002, with the spread of a Flash animation that depicted the slogan. The text is taken from the opening cut scene of the 1991 European Sega Mega Drive version of the video game Zero Wing[1] by Toaplan which was poorly translated by Sega of Europe. It was popularized by the Something Awful message forums.[2]

Contents

[edit] Transcript and translations

A summarized GIF animation of the scene.


[edit] Examples

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]

Original Script Original English Translation Correct English Translation
機関士：何者かによって、爆発物が仕掛けられたようです。 Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb. Engineer: An unknown assailant has planted an explosive device!
通信士：メインスクリーンにビジョンが来ます。 Operator: Main screen turn on. Communication operator: A visual is coming on the main screen.
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: All your base are belong to us. CATS: With the help of the Federation Government forces, CATS has taken all of your bases.
CATS：せいぜい残り少ない命を、大切にしたまえ・・・・。 CATS: You have no chance to survive make your time. CATS: Cherish these few remaining seconds of your lives.
艦長：我々の未来に希望を・・・ Captain: For great justice. Captain: Our hopes for our future ...

[edit] History

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.[3]

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."[4]

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.[5]

[edit] In popular culture

The phrase on U.S. Route 50 in Nevada

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. Notable mentions include:

  • In late 2000, Kansas City computer programmer and part-time DJ Jeffrey Ray Roberts 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 voiceover phrase "All your base are belong to us."[6]
  • On the Digital Audio Workshop, Fruity Loops there is a text-to-speech generation vocoded on the Fruity Vocoder, saying "All your base are belong to us."
  • 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]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  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 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 2008-01-18. 
  3. ^ Benner, Jeffrey (2001-02-23). "When Gamer Humor Attacks". http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2001/02/42009. Retrieved 2006-05-15. 
  4. ^ Holly Doyle. "Men arrested for “All Your Base” prank". http://www.wwmt.com/news/sturgis-468-security-thought.html. Retrieved 2009-07-10. 
  5. ^ 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 2006-05-15. 
  6. ^ 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 2007-06-29. 
  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 2006-06-02. 

[edit] External links

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