Alice and Bob
= A =
all-elbows
all your base are belong to us
A declaration of victory or
superiority. The phrase stems from a 1991 adaptation of Toaplan's
"Zero Wing" shoot-'em-up arcade game for the Sega Genesis game
console. A brief introduction was added to the opening screen, and
it has what many consider to be the worst Japanese-to-English
translation in video game history. The introduction shows the
bridge of a starship in chaos as a Borg-like figure named CATS
materializes and says, "How are you gentlemen!! All your base are
belong to us." [sic] In 2001, this amusing mistranslation spread
virally through the internet, bringing with it a slew of JPEGs and
a movie of hacked photographs, each showing a street sign, store
front, package label, etc. hacked to read "All your base are belong
to us" or one of the other dopy lines from the game. When the
phrase is used properly, the overall effect is both screamingly
funny and somewhat chilling, reminiscent of the B movie "They
Live".
The original has been generalized to "All your X are belong to
us", where X is filled in to connote a sinister takeover of some
sort. Thus, "When Joe signed up for his new job at Yoyodyne, he
had to sign a draconian NDA. It basically said, `All your code are
belong to us.'" Has many of the connotations of "Resistance is
futile; you will be assimilated" (see Borg). Considered
silly, and most likely to be used by the type of person that finds
Jeff K. hilarious.
--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.