aybabtu
This week docweasel.com brings you another old article we’ve dug up from the archives, re-organized the section, junked the old coding and copy/pasted it into the 2005 frontpages, which to be frank were a little slim.
So here’s something originally from around ’97 if I’m not wrong, and I often am, but so its not lost to the vortex of dead web pages, for all you Googlers who missed it the first time, the story of AYBABTU.
If you missed what it was all about, the next 2 frontpages will clue you in. Enjoy, and prepare to be disappointed.
ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US
“AYBABTU .swf flash music video
AYBABTU .mov w/ sound
| IN-GAME TEXT | English translation | action |
| In A.D. 2101 | A.D. 2101 | |
| War was beginning. | The battle began | outside ship an explosion occurs |
| Captain: What happen ? | Ship’s Bridge Captain: “What happened!?” | |
| Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb. | Mechanic: “Someone detonated bombs all around us!” | |
| Operator: We get signal. | Operator: “Captain! Incoming transmission!” | close-up of excited communications operator |
| Captain: What ! | Officer Captain: “What!?” | |
| Operator: Main screen turn on. | Ship’s Bridge Operator: “Image coming through on the main monitor.” | CATS appears |
| Captain: It’s You !! | Captain: “You… you are…!!” | close up of CATS |
| Cats: How are you gentlemen !! | CATS: “You appear to be preoccupied, gentlemen.” (sarcasm) | |
| Cats: All your base are belong to us. | CATS: “Thanks to the cooperation of the UN forces, all of your bases now belong to CATS.” | |
| Cats: You are on the way to destruction. | CATS: “Your ship too, shall soon be destroyed.” | close up of captain & CATS |
| Captain: What you say !! | Captain: “Im.. Impossible!” (or “F.. Foolishness!”) | |
| Cats: You have no chance to survive make your time. | CATS: “Enjoy the remaining moments of your lives….We thank you for your cooperation.” (more sarcasm) | |
| Cats: HA HA HA HA …. | CATS: “Hahahahaha ….” | ship’s bridge |
| Operator: Captain !! | Operator: “Captain!?” | close up of forlorn captain |
| Captain: Take off every ‘zig’ !! | Captain: “Launch all ZIG fighters!” | Ship’s Bridge (ZIGs on monitors) |
| Captain: You know what you doing. | Captain: “All we can do is entrust it to them…” | Shows a ZIG pilot powering up |
| Captain: Move ‘zig’. | Shows a ZIG moving into launch position | |
| Captain: For great justice. | Captain: “Give us hope for our future…We’re counting on you, ZIG!!” | ZIGs on monitors, bridge explodes |
| ship explodes as a lone ZIG zooms into view! |
History of ‘All Your Base’
- Toaplan creates the Zero Wing video game.
- Toaplan releases a port for the Sega Genesis console with the addition of an intro scene, which is then translated into english (very poorly) and released in the United States.
- Toaplan goes out of business.
- Someone from a Zany Video Game Quotes website notices the poor translation, and highlights the game.
- Overclocked.org does a humorous voiceover of the Zero Wing intro in a fake Wayne Newton voice.
- Dozens of game-related messageboards begin to post quotes from the parody, and images altered to show the phrase.
- Most of the threads lose interest and die off quickly as the trend is pronounced dead countless times.
- The Flash movie/video is released with images from the threads and music taken from the origional game someone had added the phrase “all your base” to.
- AYB explosively expands to the general (non game messageboard-reading) public.
- The origional site for the video is shut down within hours due to excessive traffic, and moves to PlanetStarsiege.
- Lycos ponders how “All your Base” was transformed from obscurity to a top 50 search practically overnight.
- Mainstream media begin to notice the trend, and stories appear in Time Magazine, USA Today, Fox News, The Los Angeles Times, Tech TV, Wired, and many others.
- As the ‘remix’ used in the video goes from 58 hits a day to several thousand per day, mp3.com notices the track has been ripped directly from the video game and pulls the music off their site due to copyright violations. It is later returned unchanged.
- The trend continues to grow as it expands into nearly every corner of the web.
- Large websites like Angelfire and Hewlett Packard sneak “all your base” references into their designs.
- “All Your Base” is pronounced dead several times every day, yet it’s 15 minutes of fame continue for some reason…