Geekiness of Years Past -or- What the hell is AYBABTU?

I was having a conversation with someone the other day, and I mentioned the phrase All Your Base Are Belong to Us (AYBABTU) and just got a really blank stare. This is a shame because not only is it a funny line, but it is an absolutely critical part of recent geek history. So I thought I would share it with you -- you meaning those of you who were not already aware of it.

The phrase All Your Base Are Belong to Us originates from a video game called Zero Wing that was translated poorly from Japanese to English upon its release here (apparently in Japanese it made a lot more sense). Here is the Wikipedia description:

The text is taken from the opening cut scene of the English version of the 1989 Japanese video game Zero Wing by Toaplan. While the translation was generally poor, this phrase stood out as particularly humorous. From mid-to-late 2000 many images were digitally altered so that the phrase was added in, either obviously or discreetly, led by the Something Awful Forums[1]. Some of these images were compiled with those created and posted to a forum thread on TribalWar.com by their members; one of whom, known only as "Bad_CRC", created the AYBABTU Flash animation that was widely downloaded and later featured on various online and televised news outlets.

The well-known quotations were taken from the European localization of the Sega Mega Drive port released in 1992. The arcade version of Zero Wing does not include the quote, though it does include an equally butchered ending; the intro for the PC Engine version has CD-quality spoken dialogue but has a completely different introduction. Zero Wing was never released in North America and therefore never came to the Sega Genesis, the North American version of the Mega Drive.

AYB demonstrated the Internet's power to spread idiosyncratic messages rapidly that would never have been covered by the traditional mass media. Although the fad has died down, the phrase continues to be one of the most commonly quoted examples of "Engrish." The phrase is also often used as a battle cry on many competitive video games, particularly those played over the Internet. Guild Wars has even made it a skill for the warrior class, where the character shouts "For Great Justice!" (a reference to another quote from Zero Wing, "Move 'zig.' For great justice.") and thereby causes the character to gain 50% more adrenaline on attacks. And again in the expansions Guild Wars Nightfall the skill "Make Your Time!" was introduced which is another quote from Zero Wing.

AYB is often cited as an example of a meme, a self-propagating thought, idea, or message, because of its broad, rapid spread across the Internet and around the world. It has also been recognized as a snowclone, wherein a familiar phrase is modified by substituting new words into the phrase (for example, "All your bug are belong to me" as used on Wikipedia's MediaZilla main page).

I like how this entry described AYBABTU as a meme because for me it is really the categorical example of a funny idea that just sets off like wildfire. Particularly after someone made a music video out of it, for about two years it was a common staple of geek conversation -- right along side quoting Caddyshack.

I first encountered AYBABTU in the video that was cruising the web in 2001-2002. I managed to find a copy on YouTube so you can participate.

Just to give you a sense how ubiquitous this phrase is in some circles -- and frankly science is one of them so pay attention -- here is a post by Shelley entitled All Your Entries Are Belong to Me. So now the next time you see this you can know where it came from...