Main Screen Turn On
I remember one summer in the early 1980s when I returned home from college and spent the entire summer listening to news radio. Thus I missed the whole craze over the "Valley Girl" song. I returned to college in the fall, sat in the chair at the college radio station, and "discovered" the song and started to play it. I immediately got numerous complaints from people who had heard the song all summer.
If such non-trendy behavior angers you, then I urge you to quit reading this blog entry right now and go read Wonkette or sumfin.
I was reading some of the older KOER Synthetica Radio Transcripts and found one that, instead of referring to General Wesley Clark, included a link to "All Your Base Are Belong To Us." If the title seems like gobbledygook to you, then click on the link now with the sound on. Even if you know what I'm talking about, you might want to click on the link for old time's sake.
I hadn't even heard about the multimedia presentation until approximately the spring of 2004, when it was promoted in one of the websites that is in Eddykins' vast empire. AYBABTU is a musical joy; for me, the music outweighs the visual content. Then again, I obviously have a soft spot for synthetica.
For those who don't know the sordid story of AYBABTU, here are the details:
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 (sic) 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...
And here is the introduction:
In A.D. 2101
War was beginning.
Captain: What happen ?
Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb.
Operator: We get signal.
Captain: What !
Operator: Main screen turn on.
Captain: It's You !!
Cats: How are you gentlemen !!
Cats: All your base are belong to us.
Cats: You are on the way to destruction.
Captain: What you say !!
Cats: You have no chance to survive make your time.
Cats: HA HA HA HA ....
Captain: Take off every 'zig' !!
Captain: You know what you doing.
Captain: Move 'zig'.
Captain: For great justice.
An alternate presentation is here. The captain's voice is less robotic, and the music is less synthetic and more electronic.
Media coverage can be found here. I leave you with one sample:
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