One of the most famous translation bloopers of all time comes from a laughable video game translation. In 1989, Japanese video game developer Toaplan came out with a game called Zero Wing. In 1991, the flash animation at the start of the game was translated into very broken English. Nonsensical phrases in the translation include, “Somebody set up us the bomb,” and, “All your base are belong to us.”
By 2000, this disastrous translation had become a popular internet joke. Read more about the cult popularity of this translation blooper, and its appearances in everything from songs to t-shirts in Wikipedia: All your base are belong to us. The photo below shows an Adobe & Omniture billboard in Utah that quotes the infamous phrase.
Click below to watch the introduction to Zero Wing, with bad translations and all:
Check out a more recent video game translation error from English to Japanese in the translation bloopers archives.
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