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All your base are belong to us

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"All your base are belong to us" (sometimes abbreviated AYBABTU or simply AYB) is a phrase that sparked an Internet phenomenon that occurred in 2001 and 2002. The phenomenon initially took the form of the sentence appearing on website message boards. Many images were digitally altered so that the phrase was added in, either obviously or discreetly. Eventually these were collected together onto one site and a Flash animation produced from them, which was widely downloaded.

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

The phrase arose from a poor translation used in the English version of the Japanese video game Zero Wing, originally produced by Toaplan in 1989. The infamous quotes were taken from the European localization of the Sega Megadrive port released in 1992. (The arcade version of Zero Wing does not include the quote, nor any other dialogue; 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 Megadrive.)

All Your Base was interesting in that it demonstrated the power of the Internet to quickly spread idiosyncratic messages that would never have been covered by the traditional mass media. Although the fad has since died down, the phrase continues to be one of the most commonly quoted examples of "Engrish".

Origins

The phrase is a line from the game's introductory cut scene, which is subtitled and poorly translated. It made its first appearance on the Internet in 1998. During mid-to-late 2000, the phrase began appearing in the forums of Something Awful. In 2000, 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 by some accounts 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 swept over the Internet, the first being the twelfth episode of Eskimo Bob, in what creators Tomas and Alan Guinan later declared their worst episode to date, going so far as to post warnings advising people not to watch it. The phenomenon was then fueled primarily by an online music video by someone named "Bad_CRC" for "Invasion of the Gabber Robots" — and just as suddenly seemed to slow to a crawl. It has been used as a caption for almost any photograph since the heavily overloaded word "base" (along with homonyms such as bass and compounds like base pair) seemed to make the phrase mean almost anything. Numerous persons and groups also replaced the word "base" with other topics (e.g. "all your data are belong to us," "all your vote are belong to us"), generally suggesting someone's aggressive dominance in a particular field.

The cut scene transcript goes as follows:

In A.D. 2101
War was beginning.
Captain: What happen ?
Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb.
spoken in the Flash animation as Someone 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 Ha ....
spoken in the Flash animation as Ha Ha Ha
Operator: Captain '!!'*
Captain: Take off every 'Zig'!!
Captain: You know what you doing.
Captain: Move 'Zig'.
Captain: For great justice.
* This line and those following it are not in some animated GIF/Flash versions seen on the Internet.

The final phrase "for great justice" appears also to have been adopted by various groups as their slogan, and there is also some adoption of "move 'zig'" (which resembles that of "Let's Roll" — a universal command to action; the "Zig" was the name of the small fighter craft piloted by the player in Zero Wing) and "Somebody set up us the bomb" (basically "uh-oh!").

The AYBABTU phenomenon is continually declared dead, yet it is still seen on the Internet. Some people who play multiplayer games like Counter-Strike have been banned from servers for continually repeating this phrase.

AYBABTU offline

 
AYBABTU at US-50

On April 1, 2003, in Sturgis, Michigan, seven men 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 said they were playing an April Fools joke by mimicking the famous Flash animation which depicted the slogan ubiquitously. Not many people who saw the signs got the joke. 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." [1]

The phrase has been spotted as graffiti on various structures, such as on a former train bridge over the Connecticut River between Hadley and Northampton, Massachusetts, an area with several colleges in close proximity. An automated news ticker on a North Carolina cable channel was even "hacked" to display the message on television. [2]

In 2002, AYBABTU was featured in an art exhibition called Trigger: Game Art which looked at the way computer games had influenced contemporary art. [3]

Media references to AYBABTU

  • An August 17, 2004 article by Eric Umansky on the e-zine Slate on U.S. withdrawal from overseas bases is entitled "All Your Base Belong to U.S." [4].
  • In one episode of the comic strip FoxTrot, the young son Jason continually repeats "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" to his confused parents.
  • In the Futurama episode Anthology of Interest 2, a space invader from the planet Nintendu 64 exclaims this phrase at the end of the second act, when Fry asks the "What-If Machine" to simulate what life would be like if it was more like a video game.
  • In one of the deleted scenes on the DVD edition of the movie Waking Life, the words "ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG..." scroll across the main character's digital watch.
  • In an early 2004 printing of the popular newspaper comic strip Sally Forth, the main character's daughter Hillary is having a discussion with Sally about grammar when the AYB reference is made.

Video games that have referenced AYBABTU

Note that the majority of the following games were designed by Western studios. The phrase is little-known in Japan.

  • Quake III Team Arena, where an add-on level reads All Your Base Are Belong To Us.
  • Warcraft III, where the single player instant victory cheat code is AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs, while the cheat code for instant defeat is SomeBodySetUpUsTheBomb. As well, a banner that says "All your orc are belong to us" appears somewhere within the game.
  • Max Payne, where a sign in the training level advertising a "Tar Cafe" gives its address as "615 ALL YOUR BASE ARE...".
  • Civilization III, where defeat leads to a screen with the world leaders taunting the player; one of the taunts is "All your base are belong to us!". It is also one of the random greetings from the computer enemies.
  • Mega Man Battle Network, where a corrupt program (depicted as a green robot) shouts "All your base are belong to us!!", before challenging Mega Man to a battle in the cyberspace.
  • Escape Velocity Nova, where you can see Cats' ship occasionally flying around in the space.
  • In Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, the player sees "All your base are belong to www.edgeofreality.com" as part of the game credits, and the phrase also appears spray-painted on a wall in one of the game environments.
  • In Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, one of the messages displayed after getting knocked down online says "All your base are belong to (player)". Another message like this says "(player) set you up the bomb"
  • In Myth III, the samurai-themed Heron Guards shout "For great justice!" in acknowledgement.
  • In XIII, the phrase "All your base are belong to us" can be seen repeating on a news ticker around parts of the main screen in the Missile Installation's War Room (before the fight with Mongoose).
  • In Asheron's Call, the developers, aware of the common practice of hacking and posting all new pictures from a new month's download content, intentionally placed pictures of letters so as to spell out the AYBABTU phrase.
  • In Neopets, one of the obtainable items is the "U-Bend of Great Justice", with the caption "The U-Bend of Great Justice will reflect between 80% and 100% of water-based attacks at an opponent, for great justice!". Neopets also has customised 404 error pages, one of which says "All your 404 are belong to us!".
  • In SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs, the message "All your base are belong to us" is given after one of the bases in the map The Ruins has been destroyed. This message is also given in SOCOM after the Nightstalker map is beaten, and in SOCOM 2 on other maps. The message is spoken at random (after the end of the round) by the female voice of "HQ".
  • In Empire Earth, one of the cheat codes is "All your base are belong to us".
  • In the Galactic Conquest Star Wars mod for Battlefield 1942 the Imperials can taunt "All Your Base Are Belong to Us" in victory.
  • In Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge, at one point Yuri (in voiceover) warns the player that "soon, all your bases will belong to me".
  • In Guild Wars, one of the skills for the Warrior class is "For Great Justice".
  • In the middle of Command & Conquer: Generals' official GLA Video Clip, a man shouts out "All your base are belong to us".
  • In Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm, where one of the phrases used when the mission is a success is "All your base are belong to us".
  • In Spider-Man 2, Mysterio taunts Spider-Man: "You have no chance to survive make your time".
  • In Age of Mythology, part of the Lazer Bear's description is "All your base are belong to us!!!"
  • In Halo, the phrase "All your base are belong to us" is visible in very small writing in the background of the menu screen, pointing to a schematic of an armor suit.
  • The Egyptian Diplomat uses the phrase in Rome: Total War.

Original Japanese text

The crudity and bluntness of the famous mistranslation is in stark contrast to CATS' cool, caustic irony in the original text. The difference is especially vivid in the line corresponding to "All your base are belong to us." In the original line, CATS uses polite Japanese and insinuates that the Federation army (presumably an ally of the Captain) was treacherously co-opted into betraying the bases.

It also appears from the original text that CATS may be the name of an organization, not just of the particular cyborg villain appearing on the screen (as is the popular interpretation among English speakers).

西暦２１０１年
戦いは始まった。
艦長：一体どうしたと言うんだ！
機関士：何者かによって、爆発物が仕掛けられたようです。
通信士：艦長！通信が入りました！
艦長：なにっ！
通信士：メインスクリーンにビジョンが来ます。
艦長：おっお前は！
ＣＡＴＳ：おいそがしそうだね、諸君。
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：君達の艦も、そろそろ終わりだろう。
艦長：ばっばかなっ・・・！
ＣＡＴＳ：君達のご協力には感謝する。
ＣＡＴＳ：せいぜい残り少ない命を、大切にしたまえ・・・・。
ＣＡＴＳ：ハッハッハッハッハッ・・・
通信士：艦長・・・。
艦長：ＺＩＧ全機に発進命令！！
艦長：もう彼らに託すしかない・・。
艦長：我々の未来に希望を・・・
艦長：たのむぞ。ＺＩＧ！！

Alternative Translation

The following is a "free text" translation of the original Japanese. It is not intended to translate the exact wording of the original, but rather to capture the spirit and tone which the author seems to have been intending.

A.D. 2101, the war has begun.
Captain: What was that?!
Chief Engineer: It appears someone has planted bombs.
Operator: Captain! We have an incoming transmission!
Captain: What? Who?
Operator: I'll put it on the main screen.
Captain: You! You're...
CATS: You seem very busy, gentlemen. Maybe having a little trouble?
CATS: With the kind cooperation of the Federation forces, we have helped ourselves to all your bases.
CATS: Your ship, too, will soon meet its end.
Captain: Im... impossible!
CATS: Thanks for coming out this far. You have made it too easy.
CATS: Make the most of these last moments of your lives.
CATS: Ha ha ha ha ha...
Operator: Captain...
Captain: Operator, give a launch order to all ZIG fighters, now!
Captain: We have no time to lose. It's up to them.
Captain: All our hope for the future is in their hands.
Captain: Godspeed, ZIG fighters!

See also

  • Meme — The concept of self-propagating ideas, of which AYBABTU is often cited as an example.
  • Something Awful — An Internet humor site, a strong driving force behind AYBABTU.
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