All Your Base Are Belong to Us
The popular internet catchphrase “All Your Base Are Belong to Us” first grew in popularity sometime around 1998. The phrase features a mistranslation from the 1992 Mega Drive port of the 1989 Japanese arcade game Zero Wing. A more accurate translation of the original Japanese script is, “With the cooperation of Federation Forces, CATS have taken over all of your bases.”
The meme was widely popularized on the Something Awful message forums when Kansas City computer programmer and part-time DJ Jefferey Ray Roberts uploaded a techno dance track, “Invasion of the Gabber Robots”, which remixed some of the Zero Wing video game music with a voice-over phrase “All your base are belong to us” in 2000.
Since then, the phrase has been featured throughout popular culture including numerous articles, books, comics, clothing, movies, radio shows, songs, TV shows, video games, websites, and webcomics.