MA-0002 · first seen July 1991
All Your Base Are Belong to Us
A botched English translation from a 1991 Mega Drive shooter that became one of the Internet’s first great in-jokes.
- Status
- ClassicPeaked more than five years ago
- Trend score
- 8/100Estimated
- Change, 90 days
- 0%Estimated
- Peak
- 70Mar 2001
- Years active
- 1Index of 30 or more
- First seen
- 1991July 1991
Popularity over time
Monthly attention from Jun 1999 to Oct 2026. Hover or tab through the chart for each month.
- First appearance
- Went viral
- Peak
- Decline
Attention index, 0 to 100 on one scale for the whole archive. Estimated from each meme’s key dates, not measured.
About
The line comes from the opening cutscene of Zero Wing, a Toaplan shoot-‘em-up whose European Mega Drive version, released in July 1991, shipped with an awkward English script. “All your base are belong to us” and “You have no chance to survive make your time” stuck in players’ heads long after the game was forgotten.
By 2000 the cutscene was circulating on forums as an animated GIF and a techno remix. In February 2001 a Flash music video posted to Newgrounds turned it into a mass phenomenon: photoshopped street signs, newspaper coverage and endless parody within weeks. It is often cited as one of the first memes in the modern sense.
Origin
The opening cutscene of Zero Wing, a 1989 arcade shooter, in its European Sega Mega Drive version released in July 1991.
July 1991
Viralization
A Flash music video posted to Newgrounds on 16 February 2001 carried the phrase far beyond gamers.
February 2001
Peak
Press attention that month, including Wired on 23 February and Time on 25 February, marked the height of the craze.
Mar 2001
Timeline
From the first post to where it stands today.
Origin
A translation goes wrong
Zero Wing reaches Europe on the Mega Drive with a clumsy English script, including the line that will outlive the game.
Early adoption
Gabber robots
Programmer Jeffrey Ray Roberts mixes the dialogue into a techno track, “Invasion of the Gabber Robots”, which circulates on forums.
Viral
The Flash video
A Flash music video posted to Newgrounds by a user called Bad_CRC spreads the phrase beyond gaming communities.
Peak
The press catches up
Wired runs “When Gamer Humor Attacks” on 23 February; Time covers the craze two days later.
Decline
Pranks and in-jokes
The phrase becomes a stock reference. In February 2004 students at North Carolina State University hijack a local news ticker with it.
Current
Shorthand for takeover
Still understood decades later: in January 2019 a member of the US Congress tweets the line while discussing tax policy.
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