Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
What the mechanic means is simple, the ship has been bombed, but the garbled grammar made it the first half of the most famous bad translation in games. Fans quote it as the setup to the CATS reply, and the pair spread across forums and Flash animations around 2001. Later releases fixed the wording, yet the 1991 text is the version people still say.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for Zero WingShow the scene
The line opens Zero Wing's introduction, the cutscene that plays before the first stage. In the Mega Drive version, released in Europe in July 1991, a captain, a mechanic and a radio operator on a Federation ship discover that the vessel has been sabotaged. The mechanic delivers this report, and the operator then announces an incoming transmission on the main screen, where the villain CATS appears to claim the ship's bases. Toaplan's Japanese arcade original dates from 1989, and its Japanese script says only that explosives have been planted. The English was written by a Toaplan staff member, not a professional translator.
Sources (2)
- Wikipedia: All your base are belong to usZero Wing transcript table and History sectionReference checked
- Wikipedia: Zero WingDevelopment sectionReference checked
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