All Your Base Are Belong To Us

U MAD BRO? All Your Base Are Belong To Us is a featured article here on Teh Meme Wiki.

All Your Base Are Belong To Us
Historical
Date Created	1991
Creator	Toaplan (developer) Namco (publisher)
Associated Game	Zero Wing
General
Type	Engrish
Status	Dead

About

“All Your Base Are Belong to Us” is a popular catchphrase that swept across the internet at the dawn of 21st century as early as in 1998. An awkward English translation of “all of your bases are under our control,” the quote originally appeared in the opening dialogue on the European release of the 1991 Sega Mega Drive/Genesis port of Zero Wing, a nostalgic 16-bit shoot’em up game released in 1989. Marked by abundance of poor grammar, “All Your Base” phrase and the dialogue scene went viral on popular discussion forums in 2000, spawning thousands of image macros and flash animations featuring the slogan both on the web and in real life.

By the early 2000s, a GIF animation depicting the opening text became widespread on web forums. A music video accompanied by a techno remix of the clip, originally posted on the comedy forum Newgrounds, gained popularity and became a derivative Internet meme in its own right. The original meme has been referenced many times in media outside of the forums.

Origin

The phrase and game footage used in the meme come from the 1989 side-scrolling arcade shooter Zero Wing. The quote is from the introduction sequence of the game in which the player's enemy, the leader of CATS, appears. The following conversation happens afterwards:

Original script	English version	Accurate translation
機関士：かによって、がけられたようです。	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ます。	Operator: Main screen turn on.	Communications Operator: Incoming visual on the main screen.
CATS：のごにより、のは、てCATSがいただいた。	CATS: All your base are belong to us	CATS: With the cooperation of Federation Forces, CATS has taken all your bases.
CATS：せいぜいりないを、にしたまえ・・・・。	CATS: You have no chance to survive make your time.	CATS: Treasure what little time remains in your lives.
艦長：たのむぞ。ZIG！！	Captain: Take off every 'ZIG'!!	Captain: We're counting on you, ZIG!!
艦長：のにを・・・	Captain: For great justice.	Captain: May there be hope for our future...

The poor grammar present is an example of "Engrish" which is; phrases originally written in an Asian language but translated poorly into its closest English approximation.

Its first appearance on the internet is hard to pinpoint due to sites closing down. It was popularized in 1998/1999 on the Rage Games forum, which has now become Classic Gaming powered by IGN. It also was popular on Zany Video Game Quotes, archived here with a Zero Wing image on their main page.

In June 2000, Overclock.org posted their Zero Wing Dub Project, featuring a dubbed version of the introduction with Wayne Newton's voice. This was most likely the first instance of a response video.

On February 15th, 2001 (approx.), Bad_CRC of Tribal War released the famous music video, which was also uploaded to Newgrounds on February 16th, 2001.

Gallery

"All Your Base Are Belong to Us" graffitied on the side of U.S. Route 50 in Nevada.

External references

• Wikipedia - All your base are belong to us