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All your base are belong to us

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The phrase is a piece of subtitled dialogue from the introduction to Zero Wing.
The phrase is a piece of subtitled dialogue from the introduction to Zero Wing.

"All your base are belong to us" (often referred to as "All Your Base" or abbreviated AYBABTU, AYBAB2U, or simply AYB) is an Engrish phrase that sparked an Internet phenomenon in 2001 and 2002.

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[edit] Origin of the phrase

The text is taken from the opening cut scene of the English version of the 1989 Japanese video game Zero Wing by Toaplan. The phrase first made its appearance on the Internet in 1998 when an animated gif of the opening scene to the game was posted. While the translation was generally poor, this phrase stood out as particularly humorous. The phrase slowly began to circulate over many webforums, and by mid-to-late 2000 many images were digitally altered so that the phrase was added in, either obviously or discreetly, especially after the Something Awful Forums<ref>Mert, Atila (2001-03-22). All Your Base Are Belong To Us - The History. Retrieved on 2006-06-23.</ref> got involved. Some of these images were compiled with those created and posted to a forum thread on TribalWar.com by their members. In 2000, Jared and Canadian Gabber group The Laziest Men on Mars created the song "Invasion of the Gabber Robots" using samples from the game theme by Tatsuya Uemura (including a robotic voice synthesis rendition of the complete cut-scene dialogue, which caused MP3.com to temporarily remove the track from their servers for perceived copyright violation).

By the second half of February 2001 a huge number of altered pictures, GIF animations, and Macromedia Flash animations (in addition to photos of actual sightings) swept over the Internet, the first being the twelfth episode of Eskimo Bob<ref>Mert, Atila (2001-03-22). All Your Base Are Belong To Us - The History. Retrieved on 2006-10-19.</ref> Just days later, a Tribalwar forum member, known only as "Bad_CRC", created the Flash animation that was widely downloaded and later featured on various online and televised news outlets.

The well-known quotations were taken from the European localization of the Sega Mega Drive port released in 1992. The arcade version of Zero Wing does not include the quote, though it does include an equally butchered ending; the intro for the PC Engine version has CD-quality spoken dialogue but has a completely different introduction. Zero Wing was never released in North America and therefore never came to the Sega Genesis, the North American version of the Mega Drive.

The quote demonstrated the Internet's power to spread idiosyncratic messages rapidly that would never have been covered by the traditional mass media. Although the fad has subsided, the phrase remains one of the most quoted examples of "Engrish." The phrase is also often used as a battle cry on many competitive video games, particularly those played over the Internet. Guild Wars has even made it a skill for the warrior class, where the character shouts "For Great Justice!"<ref>"For Great Justice!" - GuildWiki. gamewikis.org. Retrieved on 2006-10-02.</ref> (It's a reference to another line from the Zero Wing intro, "Move zig. For great justice.") and thereby causes the character to gain 50% more adrenaline on attacks. In the Guild Wars Expansion, Nightfall, there is a skill called "Make Your Time!"<ref>"Make Your Time!" - GuildWiki. gamewikis.org. Retrieved on 2006-10-02.</ref> (a quote of an additional line from the Zero Wing introduction).

AYB is often cited as an example of a meme—a self-propagating thought, idea, or message—because of its broad, rapid spread across the Internet and around the world. It has also been recognized as a snowclone, wherein a familiar phrase is modified by substituting new words into the phrase (for example, "All your bug are belong to me" as used on Wikipedia's MediaZilla main page).

Newgrounds' Flash portal spawned many variants of the Flash animation with a wide range of content, creativity, and quality.

[edit] Notable references in popular culture

Main article: List of cultural references to "All your base are belong to us"

AYBABTU on U.S. Route 50 in Nevada Image:Wrestlemaniaxseven000.jpg

AYBABTU in the Halo: Combat Evolved menu screen.

Due to its immense popularity, the phrase or some variation of the lines from the game has been seen in innumerable articles, books, comics, clothing, movies, radio shows, songs, television shows, video games, webcomics, and websites. However, few have actually drawn any legitimate media attention. A selection of those that have garnered such coverage follows:

  • In July of 2006, Livejournal.com changed its 404 error page to an AYB reference. This, however, is one of several random messages, and the page may need to be refreshed several times to see it.[1]
Narrator: In A.D. 2006, Web was beginning.
Captain: What happen ?
Mechanic: Somebody set up us the journal.
Operator: We get signal.
Captain: What !
Operator: Main browser turn on.
Captain: It's you !!
CATS: How are you users !!
CATS: All your base are belong to Frank.
CATS: You are on the way to 404.
Captain: What you say !!
CATS: You have no chance to reach your page. Make your spelling correct.
CATS: Ha Ha Ha Ha ..!


[edit] Related phrases and usage

The final phrase "for great justice" has been adopted by various groups as their slogan. There is some adoption of "move 'zig'" (which resembles "let's roll" — a universal command to action; "Zig" was the name of the small fighter craft piloted by the player in Zero Wing) and "Somebody set up us the bomb" or its derivative, "Someone set up us the bomb" (basically "uh-oh!" or "We're under fire!").

There is extensive usage of AYB quotes and references in video games on the List of cultural references to "All your base are belong to us".

[edit] Transcripts and translations

Image:Wikiquote-logo-en.png
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
See Zero Wing (translations) for transcripts of the opening and closing scenes as well as the original Japanese text and various English translations.

In A.D. 2101
War was beginning.
Captain: What happen?
Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb.
Operator: We get signal.
Captain: What!!
Operator: Main screen turn on.
Captain: It's you!!
Cats: How are you gentlemen!!
Cats: All your base are belong to us.
Cats: You are on the way to destruction.
Captain: What you say!!
Cats: You have no chance to survive make your time.
Cats: Ha ha ha...
Operator: Captain!!
Captain: Take off every 'Zig'!!
Captain: You know what you doing.
Captain: Move 'Zig'.
Captain: For great justice.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

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[edit] External links

This audio file was created from an article revision dated 2005-07-17, and may not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help)

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As with media and other references, the number of sites containing a reference to AYB is very large. Accordingly, the following are links considered representative without being redundant or trite.

cs:All your base are belong to us de:All your base are belong to us et:All your base are belong to us es:All your base are belong to us eo:All your base are belong to us fr:All your base are belong to us ko:All your base are belong to us it:All your base are belong to us he:All your base are belong to us nl:All your base are belong to us ja:All your base are belong to us no:All your base are belong to us pl:All your base are belong to us pt:All your base are belong to us fi:All your base are belong to us sv:All your base are belong to us zh:All your base are belong to us

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