All your base are belong to us
Encyclopedia
Engrish
refers to unusual forms of English language usage by native speakers of some East Asian languages. The term itself relates to Japanese speakers' tendency to inadvertently substitute the English phonemes "R" and "L" for one another, because the Japanese language has one alveolar consonant in place...
phrase that became an Internet phenomenon or meme
Internet meme
The term Internet meme is used to describe a concept that spreads via the Internet. The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although the latter concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information.-Description:...
in 2000–2002. The text comes from the opening cutscene
Cutscene
A cutscene is a sequence in a video game over which the player has no or only limited control, breaking up the gameplay and used to advance the plot, strengthen the main character's development, introduces enemy characters, and provide background information, atmosphere, dialogue, and clues...
of the 1991 Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an Sega Mega Drive
Sega Mega Drive
The Sega Genesis is a fourth-generation video game console developed and produced by Sega. It was originally released in Japan in 1988 as , then in North America in 1989 as Sega Genesis, and in Europe, Australia and other PAL regions in 1990 as Mega Drive. The reason for the two names is that...
version of the video game Zero Wing
Zero Wing
is a 1989 side-scrolling shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Toaplan and published by Taito. The player is a lone hero who will save the universe from an evil force....
by Toaplan
Toaplan
, sometimes written as Toa Plan, was a video game developer from Japan. They were responsible for the creation of a wide array of relatively famous scrolling shooters and arcade games, yet the company declared bankruptcy in 1994.-Games developed :...
, which was poorly translated
Engrish
refers to unusual forms of English language usage by native speakers of some East Asian languages. The term itself relates to Japanese speakers' tendency to inadvertently substitute the English phonemes "R" and "L" for one another, because the Japanese language has one alveolar consonant in place...
from Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
.
The meme developed from this as the result of a GIF animation depicting the opening text which was initially popularized on the Something Awful
Something Awful
Something Awful, often abbreviated to SA, is a comedy website housing a variety of content, including blog entries, forums, feature articles, digitally edited pictures, and humorous media reviews. It was created by Richard "Lowtax" Kyanka in 1999 as a largely personal website, but as it grew, so...
message forums, leading to a phenomenon of surreal
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
altered images
Photo manipulation
Photo manipulation is the application of image editing techniques to photographs in order to create an illusion or deception , through analog or digital means.- Types of digital photo manipulation :...
depicting the meme in everyday scenes, placement of the text in real world locations, and the text and images being set to hardcore techno
Hardcore techno
Hardcore techno is a type of electronic music typified by the rhythmic use of distorted and atonal industrial-like beats and samples...
music by the band The Laziest Men on Mars
The Laziest Men on Mars
The Laziest Men on Mars are a band known for their successful Gabber song "Invasion of the Gabber Robots" which remixed some of the Zero Wing video game music by Tatsuya Uemura, which became background music to the popular "All your base are belong to us" Flash animation. Their song "Invasion of...
. Other Zero Wing phrases, including "For great justice!" and "Move zig!", popularized in the same animated GIF and video, also acquired some degree of notoriety and popular re-use within internet culture.
Transcript examples
- Wikiquote
WikiquoteWikiquote is one of a family of wiki-based projects run by the Wikimedia Foundation, running on MediaWiki software. Based on an idea by Daniel Alston and implemented by Brion Vibber, the goal of the project is to produce collaboratively a vast reference of quotations from prominent people, books,...
has a full transcript of the Zero wing introduction
| Original script | Original English translation | More accurate English translation |
|---|---|---|
| Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb. | Engineer: An unknown assailant has planted a bomb! | |
| Operator: Main screen turn on. | Radio Operator: Video is being routed to the main screen. | |
| CATS: All your base are belong to us. | CATS: With the help of Federation Forces, all your bases have been taken over by CATS. | |
| CATS: You have no chance to survive make your time. | CATS: Treasure what little time remains of your lives. | |
| Captain: For great justice. | Captain: Let's hope for our future... | |
See also
- EngrishEngrishrefers to unusual forms of English language usage by native speakers of some East Asian languages. The term itself relates to Japanese speakers' tendency to inadvertently substitute the English phonemes "R" and "L" for one another, because the Japanese language has one alveolar consonant in place...
- Internet memeInternet memeThe term Internet meme is used to describe a concept that spreads via the Internet. The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although the latter concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information.-Description:...
s - List of Internet phenomena