All your base are belong to us
The Jargon File's Guide to Hacker Slang:
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all your base are belong to us
A declaration of victory or superiority. The phrase stems from a 1991 adaptation of Toaplan's “Zero Wing” shoot-'em-up arcade game for the Sega Genesis game console. A brief introduction was added to the opening screen, and it has what many consider to be the worst Japanese-to-English translation in video game history. The introduction shows the bridge of a starship in chaos as a Borg-like figure named CATS materializes and says, “How are you gentlemen!! All your base are belong to us.” [sic] In 2001, this amusing mistranslation spread virally through the Internet, bringing with it a slew of JPEGs and a movie of hacked photographs, each showing a street sign, store front, package label, etc. hacked to read “All your base are belong to us” or one of the other many supremely dopey lines from the game (such as “Somebody set up usthe bomb!!!” or “What happen?”). When these phrases are used properly, the overall effect is both screamingly funny and somewhat chilling, reminiscent of the B movie “They Live”.
The original has been generalized to “All your X are belong to us”, where X is filled in to connote a sinister takeover of some sort. Thus, “When Joe signed up for his new job at Yoyodyne, he had to sign a draconian NDA. It basically said: All your code are belong to us.” Has many of the connotations of “Resistance is futile; you will be assimilated” (see Borg). Considered silly, and most likely to be used by the type of person that finds Jeff K. hilarious.
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All your base are belong to us
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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All your base are belong to us
The phrase as it appears in the introduction to Zero Wing.
"All your base are belong to us" (often shortened to "All Your Base", "AYBABTU", or simply "AYB") is a broken English phrase that became an Internet phenomenon or meme. The text comes from the opening cutscene of the 1991 European Sega Mega Drive version of the video game Zero Wing[1] by Toaplan, which was poorly translated from Japanese.
The meme developed from this as the result of a GIF animation depicting the opening text[1] which was initially popularized on the Something Awful message forums.[2]
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Zero Wing |
| Original script[3] | Original English translation[4][a] | Direct translation from Japanese[b] |
|---|---|---|
| 機関士：何者かによって、爆発物が仕掛けられたようです。 | Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb. | Engineer: Somebody has planted a bomb. (lit. It appears that an unknown party has planted an explosive) |
| 通信士：メインスクリーンにビジョンが来ます。 | Operator: Main screen turn on. | Radio Operator: We are getting video on the main screen (lit. a visual is coming on the main screen.) |
| 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: All your base are belong to us. | CATS: With the cooperation of Federation Forces, all of your bases have been taken over by us (lit. CATS has received/taken all of your bases.) |
| CATS：せいぜい残り少ない命を、大切にしたまえ・・・・。 | CATS: You have no chance to survive make your time. | CATS: Treasure what little time remains of your lives. |
| 艦長：たのむぞ。ZIG！！ | Captain: Move 'ZIG'. | Captain: I ask of you, ZIG [units]... |
| 艦長：我々の未来に希望を・・・ | Captain: For great justice. | Captain: ...let there be hope for our future (lit. ...to our future, [restore] hope.) |
References in mass media and elsewhere
The phrase or some variation of lines from the game has appeared in numerous articles, books, comics, clothing, movies, radio shows, songs, television shows, video games, webcomics, and websites. Notable mentions include:
In late 2000, Kansas City computer programmer and part-time DJ Jeffrey Ray Roberts of the Gabber band The Laziest Men on Mars made a techno dance track, "Invasion of the Gabber Robots", which remixed some of the Zero Wing video game music by Tatsuya Uemura with a voice-over phrase "All your base are belong to us."[5]
On February 23, 2001, Wired provided an early report on the phenomenon, covering it from the Flash animation to its spread through e-mail and Internet forums to T-shirts bearing the phrase.[6]
On April 1, 2003, in Sturgis, Michigan, seven people 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 claimed to be playing an April Fool's joke but most people who saw the signs were unfamiliar with the phrase. 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."[7]
In February 2004, North Carolina State University students and members of TheWolfWeb in Raleigh, North Carolina exploited a web-based service provided for local schools and businesses to report a weather-related closing to display the phrase within a news ticker on a live news broadcast on News 14 Carolina.[8]
On June 1, 2006, the video hosting website YouTube was taken down temporarily for maintenance. The phrase "ALL YOUR VIDEO ARE BELONG TO US" appeared below the YouTube logo as a placeholder while the site was down. Some users believed the site had been hacked, leading the host to add the message "No, we haven't been hacked. Get a sense of humor."[9]
On December 13, 2010, the song "My Feelings for You" by DJs Avicii and Sebastien Drums was released. Its music video makes reference to this citation stating "All your feelings are belong to us...".[10]
On December 2, 2011, a team calling itself "All Your Shreds Are Belong to U.S." won the DARPA Shredder Challenge, requiring reassembly of five documents from shredded fragments in order to answer questions about the coded messages.[11][12][13][14]
See also
This audio file was created from a revision of the "All your base are belong to us" article dated 2010-10-22, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help)
- English As She Is Spoke—a similar stereotype of broken English
- Engrish
- Internet memes
- List of Internet phenomena
Notes
- ^ Original broken English translation as it appeared in the released videogame.
- ^ The direct translation from the original Japanese game text has been created by Wikipedia editors with the help of native speakers.
References
- ^ a b Alex Tufty Ashman (2007-02-13). "All Your Base Are Belong To Us". h2g2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A19147205. Retrieved 2008-02-04. "The GIF slowly started to spread across the Internet, but it wasn't until 2000 that it properly gained popularity. By the end of the year, altered images of various road signs, cereal packets and other photographs containing the words 'All Your Base Are Belong To Us' had started to appear, and by 2001 the phenomenon was in full swing."
- ^ Julian Dibbell (2008-01-18). "Mutilated Furries, Flying Phalluses: Put the Blame on Griefers, the Sociopaths of the Virtual World". Wired. p. 2. http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/magazine/16-02/mf_goons?currentPage=2. Retrieved 2008-01-18.
- ^ (Japanese) Toaplan. Zero Wing (in Japanese). (Taito). Sega Mega Drive. Scene: Intro sequence. (31 May 1991)
- ^ Toaplan. Zero Wing. (Taito). Sega Mega Drive. Scene: Intro scene. (1992)
- ^ Taylor, Chris (2001-02-25). "All Your Base Are Belong To Us". Time. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,100525,00.html. Retrieved 2007-06-29.
- ^ Benner, Jeffrey (2001-02-23). "When Gamer Humor Attacks". Wired. http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2001/02/42009. Retrieved 2006-05-15.
- ^ Doyle, Holly (2003-04-04). "Men arrested for "All Your Base" prank". WWMT NEWSCHANNEL 3. Archived from the original on 29 August 2010. http://web.archive.org/web/20100829220138/http://www.wwmt.com/news/sturgis-468-security-thought.html. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
- ^ Poulsen, Kevin (2004-03-05). "Wags hijack TV channel's on-screen ticker". The Register. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/03/05/wags_hijack_tv_channels_onscreen/. Retrieved 2006-05-15.
- ^ Sandoval, Greg (2006-06-02). "YouTube: Our humor, not our hack". CNET News. http://news.cnet.com/YouTube-Humor,-not-hack/2100-1026_3-6079314.html. Retrieved 2006-06-02.
- ^ Michael (September 10, 2010). "Tune of the Week – Avicii & Sebastien Drums – My Feelings For You". Maxumi Magazine. http://www.maxumi.co.uk/2010/09/10/tune-of-the-week-avicii-sebastien-drums-my-feelings-for-you/. Retrieved April 18, 2012.
- ^ Bingham, Amy (2011-12-02). "Calif. Programmers Win $50K in Pentagon’s Un-Shredding Contest". ABC News. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2011/12/calif-programmers-win-50k-in-pentagons-un-shredding-contest. Retrieved 2011-12-02.
- ^ Drummond, Katie (2011-12-02). "Programmers Shred Pentagon’s Paper Puzzle Challenge". Wired. http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/darpa-shredder-challenge-2. Retrieved 2011-12-04.
- ^ Orlin, Jon (2011-12-02). ""All Your Shreds Are Belong to U.S." Wins $50,000 DARPA Shredder Challenge". TechCrunch. http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/02/all-your-shreds-are-belong-to-u-s-wins-50000-darpa-shredder-challenge. Retrieved 2011-12-04.
- ^ Aron, Jacob (2011-12-03). "DARPA's Shredder Challenge has been solved". New Scientist. http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2011/12/darpas-shredder-challenge-has.html. Retrieved 2011-12-04.
External links
Media related to All your base are belong to us at Wikimedia Commons
Quotations related to Zero wing at Wikiquote
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