Zero Wing
From Video Game Morgue File
Zero Wing is a side-scrolling shooter by Toaplan.
Arcade game
The original arcade game was released in Japan in July 1989. In North America, it was distributed from April 1990 by Williams Electronics.
Sega Mega Drive
The Mega Drive port, developed in-house at Toaplan, was released in Japan and Europe, but not in North America.
PC Engine CD-ROM²
2023 re-release
"All your base"
Zero Wing's most enduring legacy is the unusually strange English translation found in the European Mega Drive version's introductory cutscene text. (The arcade version lacks this.) Years after the game's release, bolstered by posts on the Something Awful forums, the intro became an early example of a runaway Internet meme, which to this day is far better known than the game itself.
