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" is an Internet meme based on a poorly translated phrase from the opening cutscene of the Japanese video game Zero Wing. The phrase first appeared on the European release of the 1991 Sega Mega Drive port of the 1989 Japanese arcade game.

By the early 2000s, a GIF animation depicting the opening text became widespread on web forums.^[1] A music video accompanied by a techno remix of the clip, originally posted on the website Newgrounds, gained popularity and became a derivative Internet meme in its own right. The original meme has been referenced many times in media outside of the forums.

The original phrase in Japanese, uttered by the enigmatic antagonist "CATS", is "君達の基地は、全てCATSがいただいた" (Hepburn Romanization: Kimitachi no kichi wa subete CATS ga itadaita), which can be translated more properly as "All of your bases have been taken over by CATS" (see the transcript below).

^ Dibbell, Julian (18 January 2008). "Mutilated Furries, Flying Phalluses: Put the Blame on Griefers, the Sociopaths of the Virtual World". Wired. Archived from the original on 30 June 2014. Retrieved 30 June 2014.

[1] Dibbell, Julian (18 January 2008). "Mutilated Furries, Flying Phalluses: Put the Blame on Griefers, the Sociopaths of the Virtual World". Wired. Archived from the original on 30 June 2014. Retrieved 30 June 2014.

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