"All your base are belong to us" is an

Internet meme An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...

based on a badly translated phrase from the opening

cutscene A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward the ...

of the video game '' Zero Wing''. The phrase first appeared on the European release of the 1991 Sega Mega Drive

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as ...

of the 1989 Japanese arcade game. By the early 2000s, a

GIF animation The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF; or , #Pronunciation, see pronunciation) is a Raster graphics, bitmap Image file formats, image format that was developed by a team at the online services provider CompuServe led by American computer scie ...

depicting the opening text was widespread on the

Something Awful ''Something Awful'' (SA) is an American comedy website hosting content including blog entries, forums, feature articles, digitally edited pictures, and humorous media reviews. It was created by Richard "Lowtax" Kyanka in 1999 as a largely per ...

message forums and other internet forums. The phrase found popular reference outside internet forums through the 2000s and 2010s, including use by

Newgrounds Newgrounds is an entertainment website and company founded by Tom Fulp in 1995. It hosts user-generated content such as games, films, audio, and artwork. Fulp produces in-house content at the headquarters and offices in Glenside, Pennsylvania. I ...

in 2001.

Zero Wing transcript

Below are some other examples of text as it appeared in the poorly translated English release, alongside a more accurate translation from the original Japanese.

Translation history

The meme was addressed by

Toaplan was a Japanese video game developer based in Tokyo responsible for the creation of a wide array of scrolling shooters and other arcade games. The company was founded in 1979 but its gaming division was established in 1984 by former Orca and C ...

Tatsuya Uemura is a Japanese arcade game musician and programmer. He has composed the following scores for arcade games: *'' Flying Shark'' *'' Tiger-Heli'' *''Guardian'' *'' Hellfire'' *'' Twin Cobra'' *''Out Zone'' *''Dogyuun'' *'' Zero Wing'' (with Toshia ...

(the game's programmer and composer) and Masahiro Yuge (composer) in interviews during the 2010s. They stated the poor English translation in the Mega Drive version was handled by a member of Toaplan in charge of export and overseas business, whose English was poor.
Translation
by Shmuplations. ).

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 The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

computer

programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

, Something Awful forum member, and part-time

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...

Jeffrey Ray Roberts (1977–2011) of the

gabber Gabber (; ) is a style of electronic dance music and a subgenre of hardcore techno, as well as the surrounding subculture. The music is more commonly referred to as Hardcore, which is characterised by fast beats, distorted & heavier kickdrums, ...

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 and

Noriyuki Iwadare is a Japanese video game composer. Biography Iwadare was born in Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. He began to compose video game music after years of being involved with university bands. He began composing for Toaplan, arranging t ...

with a voice-over phrase "All your base are belong to us". Tribal War forums member Bad_CRC in February 2001 created a

Flash animation Adobe Flash animation or Adobe Flash cartoon (formerly Macromedia Flash animation, Macromedia Flash cartoon, FutureSplash animation, and FutureSplash cartoon) is an animation that is created with the Adobe Animate (formerly Flash Professional) ...

combining Roberts' song and the various images created in a Something Awful AYB Photoshop thread, which proceeded to go viral. ''Wired'' provided a report on the phenomenon in February 2001, covering it from the Flash animation to its spread through

email Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" mean ...

and internet forums to

T-shirts A T-shirt (also spelled tee shirt), or tee, is a style of fabric shirt named after the T shape of its body and sleeves. Traditionally, it has short sleeves and a round neckline, known as a '' crew neck'', which lacks a collar. T-shirts are genera ...

bearing the phrase. On April 1, 2003, in Sturgis, Michigan, seven people placed signs through the 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". In February 2004,

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The universi ...

students and members of

TheWolfWeb TheWolfWeb, also known as TWW or T-dub, is an unofficial message board for North Carolina State University (NCSU), created by Jacob Morgan (CrazyJ). TWW was the prototype for the "party in college" message boards, which provide an online communit ...

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the South ...

exploited a web-based service used by local schools and businesses to report weather-related closures to display the phrase within a

news ticker A news ticker (sometimes called a "crawler", "crawl", "slide", "zipper", or "ticker tape") is a horizontal or vertical (depending on a language's writing system) text-based display either in the form of a graphic that typically resides in the l ...

on a live news broadcast on News 14 Carolina. On June 1, 2006,

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

was taken down 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 hacked. Get a sense of humor." On January 19, 2019, American Congresswoman

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (; ; born October 13, 1989), also known by her initials AOC, is an American politician and activist. She has served as the U.S. representative for New York's 14th congressional district since 2019, as a member of ...

( Democrat from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

) tweeted "All your base (are) belong to us" in response to a poll by Hill–Harris indicating that 45% of the

Republicans Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

who were polled approved of Ocasio-Cortez's suggested implementation of a 70%

marginal tax rate In a tax system, the tax rate is the ratio (usually expressed as a percentage) at which a business or person is taxed. There are several methods used to present a tax rate: statutory, average, marginal, and effective. These rates can also be ...

for individuals making more than $10 million per year.

Footnotes

References

External links

* *
All your base are belong to us
at the

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