Zero Wing The Popular Viral Video:All Your Base Are Belong to Us

In 1989 Japan released a shoot em' up game entitled "Zero Wing" The game was a major arcade success and was transferred over to the PC and Mega Drive System (also known in North America as the Sega Genesis). This game had a wide following in Japan, but not in Europe, or at least not for its game play.

Zero Wing was a basic space shooter game where you are established as the lone hero who must save the world. In the arcade version of the game this is all that established, however when the game was moved to Europe and translated into English it received an opening cut scene that was not featured in the original game. This opening cut scene that was only a few seconds long is the true reason for Zero Wings success, because of the funny lines spoken in broken English as the game starts.

The game was so rushed in production that it was translated directly and not fluently. For example, a line in the game that should read "We're receiving a transmission signal!" in the game reads "We get Signal" and its mistakes like this that made the game popular. The game was never released in North America, but here is a transcript of the opening sequence.

Space ships exploding in the background

Captain: "What Happen?"
Mechanic: "Somebody set us up the bomb!"
Operator: "We get signal"
Captain: "What?"
Operator: "Main screen turn on"
Captain: "It's you!"

A hologram appears of a cyborg named cats, with tall green hair and pale blue skin.

Cats: "How are you gentlemens, all your base are belong to us!"
Captain: "What you say!?"
Cats: "You are on your way to destruction"
Cats: "You have no chance to survive make your time"
Cats: .... "ha ha ha"

Cats disappears and the captain dispatches fighters (these are the ships you control in the game called Zigs"

Operator: "Captain!?"
Captain: "Move Zig!
Captain: "You know what you doing"
Captain: "Take off every Zig"
Captain: "For great justice!"

The Captains ship explodes

So you can see the humor of this horribly translated game. Well in 1999 a group known as Over Clocked Remix took the classic games botched opening sequence and created a short gif displaying the sequence, then various other groups took this a step further. They dubbed in their voices along with music and sound effects form the game until a viral video was formed.

This video topped Lycos top ten most searched items at one point and reached it's pinnacle of popularity between 2001 and 2004. Many people have referenced this games lines and the flash video that spawned from them. The phrase "Move Zig" is a reference to Let's roll and in 2003 students got in big trouble for their antics involving the lines from this game

For an April fools prank they set up signs all around Sturgis Michigan that read "All you base are belong to us" "Somebody set up us the bomb" and "You have no chance to survive make your time" Many people in the community did not get the joke and thought the act to be inappropriate during a time of war. The students were also confronted by police because it was said that these messages could be considered a terrorist threat depending on how they were interpreted. No student was ever charged however.

There have been many other references to the games translation since the release of the flash video. In 2001 the comic strip "Fox Trot" referenced the game by having Jason yell out "All your Base are belong to us!" to confuse his parents. In a 2002 episode of Futurama a robot used in the arcade game "Berserk" uses the phrase "All your base are belong to us" and in 2004 the automated news ticker for News 14 Carolina, a North Carolina based news organization and cable channel was hacked and displayed various terms used in the game.

It's funny when something so simple and random takes on a life of its own. Sometime after reading this you should try searching this game, or its famed phrase "All your base are belong to us" on Google and see the video yourself, it is a must! The popularity of the game and its spin offs depicting the opening scene will probably die out, but the legacy of Zero Wing is dead set in our beloved pop culture.