Ming the Mechanic:
All Your Base Are Belong To Us!!
The NewsLog of Flemming Funch
 All Your Base Are Belong To Us!!2003-03-14 19:07
7 comments
picture by Flemming Funch

ShaktiMa posted this one in NCN: All Your Base Are Belong To Us!. It is a flash animation. Might take a little while to load if you're on a slow connection. And, well, it is not new, and has gotten a lot of attention, so some of you probably know it already. It was apparently made by a bunch of 13-14 year old video game kids, based on a game with horribly funny Japanese-to-English translations. I can't say exactly what it tells me, or why, but somehow it seems mysteriously topical and compelling at this time.

This brief history of 'All Your Base' was posted as a comment:

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...


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7 comments

15 Mar 2003 @ 02:24 by shawa : It seems SO relevant....
...to current times, though I dislike the vibe. It´s hugely funny (in a SAD, desperate way) to think that "they" (the bad, bad BORG ET´s) ACTUALLY, ALREADY own 98 % of our planet, and that "Resistance is futile"! It is such an obviously sarcastic comment - and more so coming from 14 years old. I´d like to know what became of them, lol!  

15 Mar 2003 @ 04:27 by ming : All your base
Well, another way of looking at it is that it is us who is the unstoppable underground force. No matter how much they try to keep us down, our message will come out anywhere and everywhere. They might own the buildings and the road signs, but we can put new messages on them. All their bases belong to us.  

15 Mar 2003 @ 09:35 by neolux : it seemed topical
when the chinese got ahold of one of our spy planes too. i guess it's all in how you look at it. After all, it does cover alot of base(s).  

15 Mar 2003 @ 15:02 by bushman : I know this.
There was a movie that came out called , they live. Where someone invented sunglasses that would let you see the aliens and thier messages, without them everything looks normal, like the bill boards would be selling a product, but when you put on the glasses you could see the subliminal message of the billboard, like, burgerking add, would say eat , have sex be happy, or so and so was a good person, you need to rent it, to get the whole idea. Your base, was made to mimic that senario.  

16 Mar 2003 @ 01:18 by magical_melody : Whoah!
This is really something. Very creative! Athough it gave me chills!! Yes Bushman, I remember that movie!! Hmmm. Thanks Ming for posting this! It truly is a statement of the fascist influence that is prevalent throughout the US culture! This is also a creative statement of the times! Sad but true! All is coming to a head! A time of choice...Life or Death? To which side do we empower and make true? The kids are talking! Is anyone listening???  

16 Mar 2003 @ 15:27 by bushman : Here, let me add,
this, lol, seems old Bob has something to add.
http://www.subgenius.com/bigfist/pics6/allyourbase/allyourbase.html  

16 Mar 2003 @ 15:37 by ming : Bob
Good old Bob always has something topical to add.

Funny I met the real Bob once, and he's a quite normal guy. His name isn't even Bob.  

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