All your base are belong to us
"All your base are belong to us." (sometimes referred to as "All Your Base" or abbreviated AYBABTU or simply AYB) is a phrase that sparked an Internet phenomenon that occurred in 2001 and 2002. 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 original Quicktime movie can be found here. The most popular version of the video, done by The Laziest Men on Mars, can be found here.
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 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, 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 Mega Drive.
"All Your Base" is interesting because it demonstrated the Internet's power to quickly spread idiosyncratic messages that would never have been covered by the traditional mass media. Although the fad has died down, the phrase continues to be one of the most commonly quoted examples of "Engrish". The phrase is also often used as a battle cry on many competitive video games, particularly ones played over the Internet. Last but not least, it has become a productive snowclone.
Origins
The phrase is a line from the game's introductory cut scene, which is subtitled and poorly translated (see Engrish). It made its first appearance on the Internet in 1998. During mid-to-late 1998, the phrase began appearing in many Internet message boards. 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 (in addition to photos of actual sightings) 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. 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 – or self-perception or desire for such – in a particular field.
Transcript
The cut scene transcript goes as follows:
- Narrator: 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 us up 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. They may also be included within the song lyrics of the Animated flash movie.
Original Japanese text
The 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 an attempt to capture the spirit and tone which the author intended.
- A.D. 2101
- The war has begun.
- Captain: What was that?!
- Chief Engineer: Somebody set off a bomb!
- Operator: Captain! We have an incoming transmission!
- Captain: What? Who?
- Operator: I'll put it on the main screen.
- Captain: You! You're...
- CATS [with sarcasm]: You seem to be preoccupied, gentlemen.
- CATS: With the kind cooperation of the Federation forces, CATS has taken all of your bases.
- CATS: Your ship, too, will soon meet its end.
- Captain: What do you mean?
- CATS: We thank you for your kind cooperation.
- CATS: Make the most of these last moments of your lives.
- CATS: Ha ha ha ha ha...
- Operator: Captain...
- Captain: Give the launch order to all ZIG fighters!
- Captain: We can only depend on them now.
- Captain: Our hope for the future...
- Captain: It's in your hands, ZIG fighters!
Related phrases and usage
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. AYB has even appeared on the growing blog game Blogshares.
The free (as in speech) slovene cybercafé Kiberpipa use AYB as an inspiration for its slogan: All our code are belong to you.
Offline references
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 ubiquitously depicted the slogan. 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 News 14 Carolina, 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
- In late 2001, the pilot episode of "Welcome to Eltingville" contained the main characters walking past a theater wall, on which was a poster that read "All Your Base Are Belong To Us."
- 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 Issue 14 of Planetary the colorist Laura Martin used CATS from the cut scene as a computer monitor wall image as an inside joke for members of WEF community.
- 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 an early episode of the online comic "Surreal U", a post-apocalyptic future is shown in which a mullet and "dictator mustache"-adorned President Bush declares that "All your base are belong to us."[5]
- In a guest strip of the webcomic Avalon, the characters brought a banner which read "All your base are belong to us" to a hockey game. [6]
- 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.
- In The Books' 2002 album by Tomlab, Thought for Food, the fifth track is titled "All Our Base Are Belong to Them".
- A new AOL Superbuddy Icon called ASCII says "All Your Base" when giving the big smile response.
- The TiVo personal video recorder says "All your tuners are belong: to US!" in the System Information display if backdoors are enabled and ChanDown is pressed many times (try 19).
- In the Megas XLR episode Rearview Mirror, Mirror (Part 1) which first aired on January 8, 2005, when Coop flashes back to remembering video games he played as a kid, one of them puts the words "ALL THEIR BASE ARE BELONG TO YOU" on the screen when he wins.
- In the sci-fi novel Iron Sunrise by Charles Stross, a chapter about an assassination attempt using a bomb is titled "Set us up the bomb".
- An Easter egg in a Flash cartoon, called "All your Pie", by Legendary Frog contains an 'All Your Base' parody based around one character's love for muffins (found at the end of the Flash cartoon by clicking on "What You Say?!" on the right).
- An episode of the machinima series Red vs Blue, in which the characters are attempting to stop a doomsday bomb from destroying the world, is entitled "Make Your Time".
- In a 2001 edition of the online comic "The Joy of Tech," one of the characters can be seen wearing a T-Shirt with the legend "All Your Base Station are Belong to us," tying in AYBABTU with Apple Computer's brand of wireless access points, known as AirPort Base Stations. See [7]. The comic's creators later created an actual T-shirt with this same variation of the AYBABTU expression, sold on their GeekCulture website.
- In 2002, Ctrl+Alt+Del posted a comic expressing some of the backlash that was occurring due to the immense popularity of 'All Your Base' [8].
- The webcomic College Roomies From Hell tends to use this phrase in the background, such as a poster stating "all your imaginary floating bases are belong to us" in an asylum. [9].
- In an episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire that aired sometime during 2001, Regis Philbin asked the early-round question: "Which of the following words is a NOUN?" The four options that appeared on screen were a) all b) your c) base, and d) belong.
- Similarly, on an episode of the American quiz show The Chair, John McEnroe asked a question along the lines of "What is the last word of the Pledge of Allegiance?" The answers were also a) all b) your c) base, and d) belong.
- Issue 7 of the City of Heroes comic is titled "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" and features the heroes being led into an ambush by a shadow anti-superhero organization called The Malta Group.
- In the anime "Berserk", one of the featured DVD outtakes features a character screaming "Dammit! All my base are belong to them! Great Justice!!"
- On the Microsoft Office site in late 2002, a picture of Clippy would say random "helpful" things, including "All Your Base Are Belong To Us".
- An episode of the radio program Loveline in late February 2001 featured a clueless female caller who asked the show's hosts what her boyfriend means when he says, "All Your Base Are Belong To Us". Unfortunately for her, neither Adam Carolla nor Dr. Drew were able to explain the phrase.
- The computer music-sequencer program FL Studio features a speech-synth sample with the phrase.
- The phrase also makes occasional appearances on YTMND, mainly with the word "base" being replaced by another YTMND fad.
- The phrase appears on an box of explosives in the February 26, 2001 Sluggy Freelance strip.
- In the card game "Munchkin Fu", a card named "Subtitles" has "All your base are belong to us" as the subtitles in the card's picture, which depicts a stereotypical Asian fighter in a fighting stance speaking jestingly.
- Expressing early disgust with the phrase, the webcomic Jerkcity repurposed it in strip #903, published 16 March 2001.
- In "Nodwick", a web/print comic by Aaron Williams, there is an issue where the henchman, Nodwick, gets hit on the head. For the next few scenes, he believes he is a superhero and goes around saying "Move zig! For great justice!" before using his head to bash an hourglass.
- A ska band in Toronto called One Size Fits Most created a ska cover of the song heard over the internet. It was and is one of their more popular gimmick songs, complete with off-beat time and a thrash metal guitar solo.
- New York artist Brian Alfred, exhibited a collage entitled "All your base are belong to us" in his 2004 exhibit "Overload" at the Max Protetch Gallery.
- The hardcore punk band Light the Fuse and Run released an album entitled "All Your Base Are Belong To Us".
- On the show Static Shock, Brainiac says "all of your base will belong to me" referring to his takover of Earth's armies.
- The Television block Adult Swim has an opening bump making a reference to AYB.
- The YellowTAB Zeta Operating system (and thus probably also BeOS, from which Zeta is a derivative) displays the words "YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DOING." at the beginning of a Core dump error message.
- X-Play during a review of "Rengoku: Tower of Purgatory" review which had a bad translation in the tutorial Adam Sessler stated "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" after reading Rengoku's poor translation.
- An August 9, 2005 blog post by the Microsoft Internet Explorer development team about changes to support of the HTML <base> element is titled "All your <base> are belong to us".
- A September 4, 2005 article by Charlie Demerjian on The Inquirer about PayPal freezing relief funds raised by Something Awful members has the subtitle "All your donations are belong us" [10].
- A humorous March 21, 2001 article appeared on the website of the popular spoof-newspaper The Onion entitled Congress Adds 'All Your Base Are Belong To Us' Amendment To Bankruptcy Bill. The article itself incorporates several other lines from the poorly translated dialog.
- In the introduction to the matrix the phrase is hidden as a subliminal messege.
- Because of the Halo 2 advertisement involving ilovebees.com(see Haunted Apiary), Metroid fans made a response creating several pages(e.g. [11]) with only a picture of heroine Samus Aran and the caption: "ALL YOUR BEES ARE BELONG TO US. NEVER SEND A MAN TO DO A WOMAN'S JOB.". (to see the list of sites, see Metroid Prime 2: Echoes#Marketing)
- Recently seen on a Tshirt, translated into UNIX: 'chown -R us ./base'
- The Register uses varients frequently in their headlines and one line story descriptor quips search summary.
- Guest Co-Host of the G4 show, Attack of the Show, wore a shirt from jinx.com reading "All your oil are belong to U.S."
- In October 2005, Newgrounds hosts a Flash video: Zero Wing Rhapsody, which is a meme mix of AYBABTU and Bohemian Rhapsody created by Too Much Spare Time.
Video/computer game references
Note that most of the following games were designed by Western studios. The phrase is not well-known in Japan.
- In Age of Mythology, part of the Lazer Bear's description is "All your base are belong to us!!!" The phrase is also used as cheat code that spawns a Lazer Bear.
- In Aliens vs. Predator 2, "All your base are belong to us" is sometimes used as the "death message" after dying by falling into lava.
- 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 addition, on April 1, 2001, the message "All your filthy human hovel are belong to us!" was broadcast to all players in-game.
- In Auto Assault, the phrase "Setting up the bomb" occasionally appears on the progress bar at the bottom of the loading screen.
- In the Galactic Conquest Star Wars mod for Battlefield 1942, the Imperials can taunt "All Your Base Are Belong to Us" in victory.
- In 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.
- In Crusader Kings, several ingame graphics have text from the flash hidden in them.
- In the middle of Command and Conquer: Generals official Global Liberation Army video clip, a man shouts out "All your base are belong to us". The GLA radar van also occasionally alludes to AYBABTU when selected, announcing "We get signal from anywhere".
- In Command and Conquer: 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 Counter-Strike 1.6 servers using AMX mod, when a player on the terrorist team plants the bomb on a de_ map, it will say "(Player who planted the bomb) has set up us the bomb"
- In Empire Earth, one of the cheat codes is "All your base are belong to us", which gives 100000 resources each. Another code is "Somebody set up us the bomb", which makes the player instantly win a random map game.
- In Escape Velocity Nova, a player can occasionally see CATS' ship flying around in space.
- The sleeve for the Bleem!cast Gran Turismo 2 disc has the phrase "All your base are belong to us" as closing statement in the legal terms.
- In Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, NPC attackers sometimes say "all your base are belong to us". There is also a Multiplayer "Capture the Flag"-Map called "All your Flags are belong to us".
- In Guild Wars, one of the skills for the Warrior class is "For Great Justice".
- In Halo: Combat Evolved, 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.
- In Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude, when you go to uninstall the game with Windows XP (unconfirmed with other OS's) and click on "Support Info", a window will pop up that has the quote "All Your Base Are Belong To Us".
- In Mega Man Battle Network, at the Elecman.EXE scenario where the afforementioned Elecman corrupts the SciLabs computer systems, one of the corrupt programs (depicted as a green robot) taunts "All your base are belong to us!!", before challenging Mega Man to a battle in the cyberspace.
- In Max Payne, a sign in the training level advertising a "Tar Cafe" gives its address as "615 ALL YOUR BASE ARE...".
- In Myth III, the samurai-themed Heron Guards shout "For great justice!" in acknowledgement.
- In Neopets, one of the obtainable items is the "U-Bend of Great Justice". It bears 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 "Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney", "For Great Justice" is the catchphrase of the Steel Samurai, the main character of an anime-parody TV show in the game.
- Planetside, a MMORPG by Sony featuring in-game advertisement, ran an ad during August of 2005 which features an image of one of the game characters, and the words "All Your Base Are Belong To Us".
- In Quake III Team Arena, an add-on level reads "All Your Base Are Belong To Us".
- In Radical Dreamers (Demiforce's English translation) there is an "Extra Sekrit Bonus" cutscene called "Zero Wing", featuring the entire AYBABTU script. Lynx plays the part of CATS.
- In Robopon 2, a non-player character says the phrase "All your vegetables are belong to me!" when talked to.
- In Rome: Total War, when asked to be a Protectorate by a certain faction, the text "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" can be seen at the top of the screen. The phrase is also used by the Egyptian diplomat.
- In SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs, the message "Mission failed, all your base are belong to us" is given in the map "The Ruins" after someone tries to defuse the bomb and is killed before they can finish. 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 a round by the female voice of "HQ".
- In Spider-Man 2, Mysterio taunts Spider-Man with "You have no chance to survive make your time".
- In Starcraft, occasionally when playing on Battle.net you can see the phrase "All your base is belong to us!" followed by text that says something similar to "get right in your oppenent's face!" as an ad.
- In Starsiege: Tribes, 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 Threads of Destiny IV, "Are you base are being to us" is found on Harold's Tombstone in the fictional town of Aris.
- In Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm, one of the phrases displayed when the mission is a success is "All your base are belong to us".
- 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 Warcraft III, the single player instant victory cheat code is "AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs", while the cheat code for instant defeat is "SomeBodySetUpUsTheBomb". Also, a banner that says "All your orc are belong to us" appears when you are signed on to Battle.net as an advertisement for the WarCraft III boardgame.
- 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).
- On the back of the Bleemcast! disc case, in the small print at the bottom, at the very end of the text after the copyright symbol, the phrase "All your base are belong to us" appears.
- Unreal Tournament 2004 The custom "Junkyard Mech" skin for [12] has the phrase included twice: as one of several witty lines on its animated TV screen and as a taunt in its included voicepack. It is also mentioned in the UnrealScript programming language in the Pawn class. [13]
- On the MMORPG Runescape, when talking to a few ghosts without wearing the Ghostspeak amulet, your character will recite a few sdb2404 lines, eg: "Someone set us up the bomb!" and "All your base are belong to us!"
- In the RPG Siege of Avalon a quest is named "06allyourbasearebelongtous". Also there are some comments in the speech data: "AstralGuardian.cnv: "Default=Someone set us up the bomb."" "MageTrainer.cnv: "Default=All your base are belong to us."" "TalkingTree.cnv: "Default=Launch all zigs for great justice.""
Game ending
Though the arcade version of Zero Wing did not have the famous Engrish introduction, it did provide more unintentional comedy upon completion of the game:
- CONGRATULATION !!
- A.D.2111
- ALL BASES OF CATS WERE
- DESTROYED.
- IT SEEMS TO BE PEACEFUL.
- BUT IT IS INCORRECT.
- CATS IS STILL ALIVE.
- ZIG-01 MUST FIGHT
- AGAINST CATS AGAIN.
- AND DOWN WITH THEM
- COMPLETELY! GOOD LUCK.
See also
- Engrish — A term applied to incorrect translations into English, typically made by Japanese translators.
- Fad — A temporary public phenomenon.
- Internet phenomenon
- Meme — The concept of self-propagating ideas, of which AYBABTU is often cited as an example.
- Snowclone — a cliché that can be used to generate variant phrases.
- YTMND
External links
- The Official AYBABTU Video Site (also contains histories, links, and pictures)
- The All Your Base Dvorak game deck
- The AYBABTU Timeline
- OverClocked #116 - The ZeroWing Dub Project
- Zero Wing Genesis FAQ (includes a better translation of the Japanese cut scene)
- Popular Songs with the lyrics replaced with the "All Your Base" dialog
- All Your Base Cafe — The cyber cafe named after the game. They host large video game and RPG tournaments in Winnipeg, Canada
- Verbose English Translation — Slashdot humorous verbose English translation of the AYB text
- Wing of the Zero - a "novelization" of the intro
- Download All your Base by Netpoet (with the infamous lyrics sung) from the Parkstudios netlabel, which made 5th place at Assembly 2001's MP3 music competition
- An adaptation to Star Trek
- A parody of "All your base" (look in lower right hand corner)
- Zero Wing Rhapsody (Rendition of the original animation to the melody of "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen)
- Homestar Runner AYB Parody
- The Official Cats Webpage A Real Ultimate Power parody website featuring CATS.
- Sonic The Hedgehog AYB Parody
- Graphs of the presence of the AYB volume on the internet since September 2004
- All your smurfs are belong to us (The Smurfs get into the act too - Flash)
- A Stargate: Atlantis Parody of AYB.
- Eskimo Bob episode 12: AD 2101(AYB parody in this episode)
- Newgrounds All Your Base collection
- All your Iraq Are Belong To US
- The George W Bush vs. Saddam Hussein parody of AYB
- TmsT Zero Wing parodies emporium
- Congress Introduces "All Your Base" Amendment in The Onion
- Jewschool.com's "International Jewish Conspiracy" t-shirt reading, "All your
banksmedianeocons are belong to us".