"All your base are belong to us" is anInternet meme based on apoorly translated phrase from the openingcutscene of the Japanese video gameZero Wing. The phrase first appeared on the European release of the 1991Sega Mega Driveconversion of the 1989 Japanesearcade game.
By the early 2000s, aGIF animation depicting the opening text became widespread onweb forums.[1] A music video accompanied by atechno remix of the clip, originally posted on the websiteNewgrounds, gained popularity and became a derivativeInternet meme in its own right. The original meme has been referenced many times in media outside of the forums.
The original phrase in Japanese, uttered by the enigmatic antagonist "CATS", is "君達の基地は、全てCATSがいただいた" (Hepburn Romanization:Kimitachi no kichi wa subete CATS ga itadaita), which can be translated more accurately as "All of your bases have been taken over by CATS" (see the transcript below).
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.
| Original script[2] | Basic translation from Japanese[3] | English version of the game[4][a] |
|---|---|---|
| 機関士：何者かによって、爆発物が仕掛けられたようです。 | Engineer: It appears someone has planted explosives. | Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb. |
| 通信士：メインスクリーンにビジョンが来ます。 | Communications Operator: Incoming visual on the main screen. | Operator: Main screen turn on. |
| 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: With the help of Federation government forces,CATS has taken all of your bases. | CATS:All your base are belong to us. |
| CATS：せいぜい残り少ない命を、大切にしたまえ・・・・。 | CATS: Treasure what little time you have left to live... | CATS: You have no chance to survive make your time. |
| 艦長：たのむぞ。ZIG！！ | Captain: We're counting on you, ZIG!! | Captain: Move 'ZIG'. |
| 艦長：我々の未来に希望を・・・ | Captain: May there be hope for our future... | Captain: For great justice. |
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 YouTube video of the opening sequence, featuring the line | |
| Newgrounds post where the music video was posted |
Zero Wing was released in Japanese arcades by developerToaplan on 1 July 1989,[5] and in North America in April 1990.[6] The European release of the game on theSega Mega Drive, also known as the Sega Genesis, which contained the script of the meme's origin, occurred in July 1991.[7]
Zero Wing is one of the most widely known examples of poor linguistic translation in video games.[8]: 249–250 Toaplan staff Tatsuya Uemura (programmer and music composer ofZero Wing and Toaplan founding member) and Masahiro Yuge (fellow Toaplan composer and founder) addressed the meme in interviews during the 2010s. According to Uemura, the English translation in the Mega Drive version was handled by a member of the Toaplan design team in charge of export and overseas business, and not by a professional translator.[8]: 250 [9][10] Uemura said that the English skills of the team member who prepared the translations were "really terrible".[8]: 250
The first references of the meme could be seen in 1999 and the early 2000s when an animated GIF of the scene appeared onforums and sites like Zany Video Game Quotes,[11] OverClocked,[12] and TribalWar forums.[13] In November 2000,Kansas City computer programmer and part-timedisc jockey Jeffrey Ray Roberts (1977–2011), of thegabber band The Laziest Men on Mars, made a techno dance track, "Invasion of the Gabber Robots," which remixed some of theZero Wing video game music with a voice-over of the phrase, "All your base are belong to us".[14] (The original music forZero Wing was written byTatsuya Uemura and arranged byNoriyuki Iwadare.) On 16 February 2001, user Bad_CRC posted an animatedmusic video accompanying the song onto theFlash game and animation sharing siteNewgrounds.[15] The video was shared rapidly, soon becoming anInternet meme and receiving widespread media attention.[16][17][18][19][20] The meme's popularity was seen throughout the 2000s when it was broadcast unauthorized onto theticker of aRaleigh, North Carolina, TV channel,[21] used as a placeholder message byYouTube while under maintenance,[22] and reproduced onto T-shirts.[20][14]
The 15th and 20th anniversaries of the posting of the remix on Newgrounds were recognized by numerous culture sites.[23][16][24] The meme has been highlighted for its uniqueness in that, unlike other memes of the time, it lacked sexual innuendos or vulgarity.[15][25]
The phrase or some variation of lines from the game has appeared numerous times in films, commercials, news broadcasts, other games, andsocial media posts.
On 1 April 2003, inSturgis, 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 anApril Fools' joke, but most people who saw the signs were unfamiliar with the phrase. Many residents were upset that the signs appeared while the US was atwar with Iraq, and police chief Eugene Alli said the signs could be "a borderlineterrorist threat, depending on what someone interprets it to mean".[26]
In February 2004,North Carolina State University students and members of TheWolfWeb inRaleigh, North Carolina, exploited a web-based service used by local schools and businesses to report weather-related closures to display the phrase within anews ticker on a live news broadcast onNews 14 Carolina.[21]
On 1 June 2006, the phrase "All Your Video Are Belong to Us" appeared in all-caps below the YouTube logo as a placeholder whileYouTube was under maintenance. 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."[27]
In theE3 2016 demo for the 2017 video gameThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, "all your base are" could be seen written in the game's symbol-based fictional language.[28]
On 19 January 2019,Democratic Party congresswomanAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez ofNew York tweeted "All your base (are) belong to us" in response to a poll which found that 45% ofRepublicans approved of her suggested implementation of a 70%marginal tax rate for individual income over $10 million per year.[29][30][31]
Media related toAll your base are belong to us at Wikimedia Commons
The dictionary definition ofall your base are belong to us at Wiktionary
Quotations related toZero Wing at Wikiquote
