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"All your base are belong to us" is a popular Internet meme based on a broken English ("Engrish") phrase found in the opening cutscene of the 1992 Mega Drive port of the 1989 arcade video game Zero Wing. The quote comes from the European release of the game, featuring poor English translations of the original Japanese version.
The meme developed from this as the result of a GIF animation depicting the opening text, which was initially popularized on the Something Awful message forums.
Examples from the transcript
For the full English-language transcript, see the quotations related to Zero Wing at Wikiquote| Original script | English version of the game | Accurate translation from Japanese | Idiomatic 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: It seems someone planted explosives onboard. | It seems that an explosive has (or 'explosives have') been planted by someone. |
| 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 staff: The vision will come to the main screen. | 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 cooperation of Federation Forces, CATS has taken over all of your bases. | With the cooperation of Federation Forces, CATS has taken over 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: Treasure what little time remains in your lives. | Treasure the little time you have left to live. |
| 艦長：たのむぞ。ZIG！！ | Captain: Move 'ZIG'. | Captain: I ask of you, ZIG ... | I'm counting on you, ZIG!! |
| 艦長：我々の未来に希望を・・・ | Captain: For great justice. | Captain: ...let there be hope for our future. | For the hope of our future... |
Mentions in media
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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 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". 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. Empire Earth, released in 2001, used the phrase as a cheat code to obtain 100,000 of each of the in game resources.
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".
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.
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 hacked. Get a sense of humor."
On June 12, 2014, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, released a blog posting titled "All our Patent Are Belong to You". In the posting, Musk stated that "Tesla will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology."
See also
Footnotes
- Original broken English translation as it appeared in the released video game.
- The direct translation from the original Japanese game text has been created by Misplaced Pages editors with the help of native speakers.
- English translation edited for clarity to native English speakers, as opposed to a literal word-for-word translation.
References
- Dibbell, Julian (2008-01-18). "Mutilated Furries, Flying Phalluses: Put the Blame on Griefers, the Sociopaths of the Virtual World". Wired.
- Toaplan (31 May 1991). Zero Wing (Sega Mega Drive) (in Japanese). Taito. Scene: Intro sequence.
- Toaplan (1992). Zero Wing (Sega Mega Drive). Taito. Scene: Intro scene.
- 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.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - Benner, Jeffrey (2001-02-23). "When Gamer Humor Attacks". Wired.
- 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.
- 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.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - Sandoval, Greg (2006-06-02). "YouTube: Our humor, not our hack". CNET News. Archived from the original on 2014-05-06.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - "All Our Patent Are Belong To You". www.tesla.com. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
External links
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Media related to All your base are belong to us at Wikimedia Commons
Quotations related to Zero Wing at Wikiquote
