{"slug":"all-your-base-are-belong-to-us","name":"All Your Base Are Belong To Us","alternateFormats":[{"slug":"all-your-base-are-belong-to-us-captioned","label":"With Caption"}],"url":"/templates/all-your-base-are-belong-to-us.jpg","w":620,"h":377,"top":"ALL YOUR BASE","bottom":"ARE BELONG TO US","description":"All Your Base Are Belong To Us meme maker. The broken English from a 1989 Sega Genesis game that became one of the first internet memes ever. Stake your claim over anything with gloriously mangled grammar.","keywords":"all your base meme, all your base are belong to us, zero wing meme, ayb meme, retro meme, early internet meme","year":2001,"origin":"\"All your base are belong to us\" comes from the poorly translated English intro of the 1989 Japanese arcade game Zero Wing, ported to the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1992. The villain CATS delivers the line after taking over the protagonist's ship. The broken English went unnoticed for years until a 2001 Flash animation set it to music and spread it across the early web, making it arguably the first true internet meme. It predates even O RLY Owl (2003 skepticism) and Troll Face (2008 chaos). The phrase was Photoshopped onto road signs, buildings, and landmarks, declaring total ownership of everything in sight. It remains a foundational artifact of internet culture.","format":"classic","howToMake":["All Your Base is loaded with that iconic pixel-art villain staring you down from a 16-bit cutscene","Top text claims ownership: \"ALL YOUR [thing].\" Bottom text finishes the declaration: \"ARE BELONG TO US.\" Swap in whatever you're claiming dominion over. The broken grammar is the point","The 16-bit pixel art aesthetic pairs naturally with bold, oversized Impact text. The retro feel is part of the charm, so don't fight it with modern fonts","White text with heavy black outlines over the orange background creates strong contrast. Lean into the absurdity of claiming ownership of mundane things","Territory claimed. Download the PNG and stake your flag, or Share it to declare dominion over someone's lunch, parking spot, or remote control"],"exampleCaptions":["ALL YOUR LEFTOVERS IN THE FRIDGE","ARE BELONG TO US"],"exampleAltText":"All Your Base meme claiming ownership of all the leftovers in the fridge","exampleRefreshDate":"2026-03-10","seo":{"aliases":["All Your Base Meme","AYB Meme","Zero Wing Meme","CATS Meme","All Your Base","Belong To Us Meme"],"description":"A 16-bit pixel art villain from the Sega Genesis game Zero Wing: teal hair, a mechanical eye implant glowing red, draped in a purple cape against a vivid orange background. This is CATS, the character who delivered the most famous bad translation in gaming history. \"All your base are belong to us.\" The sentence makes no grammatical sense and that is entirely the point. The image became the visual anchor for one of the internet's earliest viral phenomena, Photoshopped onto real-world signs and landmarks across the web in 2001.","definition":"A badly translated line from the 1989 game Zero Wing that became one of the first internet memes in 2001. \"All your base are belong to us\" is used to humorously claim total ownership or dominance over something, with the deliberately broken grammar preserved as a badge of early internet heritage.","useCases":[{"category":"Claiming Territory","examples":["All your leftovers in the office fridge / Are belong to us","All your parking spots near the entrance / Are belong to us","All your blankets on the couch / Are belong to us (said by the person who always steals them)","All your bandwidth on the home WiFi / Are belong to us (every device in the house connected)","All your counter space in the kitchen / Are belong to us (the air fryer, Instant Pot, and 4 other appliances)"]},{"category":"Office Domination","examples":["All your conference rooms from 2-4 PM / Are belong to us (the team that books everything)","All your good pens in the supply closet / Are belong to us","All your Slack channels / Are belong to us (the person who joins every single one)","All your office snacks / Are belong to us (they're gone by 10 AM every day)","All your printer paper / Are belong to us (the department that prints everything)"]},{"category":"Gaming & Tech Takeover","examples":["All your save files / Are belong to us (the corrupted hard drive)","All your high scores on the arcade machine / Are belong to us","All your storage space / Are belong to us (the OS updates that won't stop growing)","All your browser tabs / Are belong to us (47 tabs open and counting)","All your inventory slots / Are belong to us (the crafting materials you'll never use but refuse to drop)"]},{"category":"Pet & Animal Conquest","examples":["All your furniture / Are belong to us (the cat who owns the couch, the bed, and the chair)","All your socks / Are belong to us (the dog who steals one from every pair)","All your lap space / Are belong to us (two cats, one lap, zero negotiation)","All your bed space / Are belong to us (the golden retriever who sleeps diagonally)","All your attention / Are belong to us (the pet who stares until you stop working)"]},{"category":"Internet History & Nostalgia","examples":["All your Flash animations / Are belong to us (the internet circa 2001)","All your GeoCities pages / Are belong to us (the early web in its purest form)","All your forum threads / Are belong to us (the era before social media)","All your dial-up bandwidth / Are belong to us (AIM, Napster, and a single browser tab)","All your meme formats / Are belong to us (this meme was here before all of them)"]},{"category":"Household Wars","examples":["All your hot water / Are belong to us (the person who showers for 45 minutes)","All your shelf space in the bathroom / Are belong to us (the skincare collection that keeps growing)","All your closet hangers / Are belong to us (the roommate who borrows and never returns)","All your phone chargers / Are belong to us (every cable in the house migrates to one room)","All your remote control batteries / Are belong to us (the kids' toys that eat AAs)"]}]}}