h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

All your base are belong to us

Posted Dec 12, 2001

Why is AYBABTU such a well-known phrase? Well, presumably, it all started something like this:

[cue dream transfer music]

One day in 1983 [or somewhere thereabouts], a small Japanese videogame firm was going bankrupt, even though their last arcade game, Zero Wing, had been such a hit. So, they rewrote the game for the Sega Megadrive (aka the Genesis). It was a well made game for its time, but there was something wrong; namely, their translation department (consisting of a small room, one Japanese student of the English language, a dictionary, a chair, a table, a coffee machine (with coffee in the pot), a transcript of the introduction, and a fish in a bowl) had horribly mangled the translation! So ends the story of Toaplan, that small, bankrupt game company.

Fast forward to the Year 2000:

Someone from Zany Videogame Quotes discovers an old copy of Zero Wing, and thinking it'll be a great game to add to his collection, buys it.

When he gets home, he tests the cartridge to make sure it works. The intro starts, and when he sees the intro, he thinks there's a horrible problem! He contacts other owners of Zero Wing, and they tell him it's SUPPOSED to be that way! So, he posts the intro on ZVGQ.

A Tribes/Tribes 2 fanatic is checking out ZVGQ on a whim, and discovers the transcript and an MP3 of a song based on the intro, "invasion of the Gabber Robots" by The Laziest Men on Mars. Combining his "1337 etiting skillz" and Flash animation with the song, he creates the AYB Flash Video, which takes off like wildfire!

Thus begins the AYB craze!

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Latest reply: Dec 12, 2001