Zero Wing Genesis FAQ 4.23

============================
Zero Wing Genesis FAQ 4.23
Game (c) 1989,1991 Toaplan

FAQ (c) 2001 Frank Provo

Author: Frank Provo
E-mail: [email protected]
============================

The current version of this guide is always available in text format at:

http://www.gamefaqs.com

This Zero Wing FAQ is a silly endeavor, but original portions are still
the intellectual property of its author. This Guide is copyrighted to
Frank Provo ((c) 2001), but don't let that stop you from launching every
'ZIG'.

NOTE: DON'T LINK DIRECTLY TO THIS FILE ON GAMEFAQS. IT IS IN VERY POOR
TASTE AND VIOLATES CJAYC'S RULES - USE THIS URL IF YOU WISH TO LINK ->
http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/genesis/game/31239.html

=================
Table of Contents
=================

A. What is Zero Wing? Toaplan?
B. The history of "All Your Base Are Belong To Us?"
C1. The Infamous Introduction in English
C2. The Introduction Translated from Japanese
C3. The Introduction's Bearing on the Game's Plot
D. How can I get Zero Wing?
E. How do I play Zero Wing?
F. Boss Guide
G. Endings (Genesis and Arcade)
H. More Information, Merchandise, Parodies, Etc.

=====================
A. What is Zero Wing?
=====================

Zero Wing is a side-scrolling shoot 'em up, in the same vein as
R-Type, Gradius, or any other progenetor of the genre. It was
developed by Toaplan in 1989 for the arcade (released by Taito)
and later ported to the SEGA Megadrive (Genesis) and PC Engine
(by Naxat) systems in 1991/2. A PC Engine CD version of the game
also exists, which includes a CD audio soundtrack, a bonus extra
level, and Japanese animation style cut scenes. Other popular
Toaplan shooters are Truxton and Batsugun. However, none have
achieved quite the same _cult_ status as Zero Wing for the SEGA
Megadrive (Genesis).

Why? _Engrish._ Toaplan couldn't find a US publisher for the
game, but it sure looks like it came out in Europe. Sadly,
they didn't exactly have the kind of deep pockets it took to
localize AND publish a game in an English-speaking market, so
their translation department was a bit minimal. In fact, by
all indications, the person who localized Zero Wing was a
lone Japanese guy who was taking English classes at night.

As a result, a rather decent, albeit knock-off shooter ended up
with one of the most memorable videogame intros ever created
Only someone with a distinctly lacking knowledge of the English
language could ever come up with something so nefariously
humorous. (See next section) To whomever translated the game for
Toaplan - THANK YOU! Sadly, Toaplan went bankrupt in 1995.

Amusingly, the arcade game had no poorly translated introducttion,
but it did have a poorly translated ending. Together, the Genesis
and arcade versions of the game would make quite a pair. *grin*

====================================================
B. The History of "All your base are belong to us."?
====================================================

"All your base are belong to us" is the Zero Wing fad.
It stems from The Laziest Men On Mars song, "The Invasion
of the Gabber Robots" merged with a Flash animation that
BAD_CRC did. Below is a chronology of events leading up to
and beyond the phenomenon.

Visit http://hubert.retrogames.com/article.php?sid=1 for
a more detailed history.

Before you read on, you should also view the catchy Shockwave
Flash video that's caused Zero Wing to become a bonafide FAD:
http://www.fffever.com/AYB2.swf
or
http://www.stileproject.com/base.html

The Particulars-
1989: Taito releases Toaplan's Zero Wing into arcades.
1991: The UK Megadrive gets the poorly translated
"Engrish" version
1995: Toaplan goes bankrupt. Batsugun is their last game.

Early 1998: The Zero Wing animated .GIF is posted on Rage
Games web site. A few months later, another
animated .GIF is posted on Zany Video Game Quotes.
It begins slowly circulating the internet.
(http://zanyvg.overclocked.org)

March 2000: Toaplan.com - a well-done fan site opens its doors.
The site is SO well made that people mistake it for
the "official" Toaplan web site! (see 1995 above)

June 5, 2000: The Zero Wing Dub Project is posted at
OverClocked. This consists of a parody comic that
makes fun of the game's poor translation, as well
as a Quicktime .mov file featuring badly
impersonated voices. Check it out at these URLs.
http://www.overclocked.org/OCzerowing.htm
http://www.overclocked.org/OCalloscar.htm

Fall 2000: According to one visitor, AYBABTU began appearing
on Stile Project as the title for and within some
images. (http://www.stileproject.com - Warning, not
for younger viewers)

Sep - Oct 2000: The forums at Lowtax's Something Awful
(http://www.somethingawful.com) start to get
infected. A gimmick poster there, going by the
name of Alf no less, posts a picture of Alf on
the phone. User Starscream adds a speech bubble
saying "All your base are belong to us." It's a
hit, and gets posted a few more times. A few people
link back to the Overclocked dub.

November 2000: The Something Awful era really gets into gear and
the photoshopping goes into full swing. A thread
is posted - The title is "ALL YUOR BASE ARE BELONG
TO US!!" (yes, it was spelled "YUOR"). The first
image (Army of Darkness) was done by Starscream
(again!). Around page 10, word begins to spread.
Some sites temporarily add AYBABTU to their pages
as an "official" link. The forum at HardOCP
(www.hardforum.com) gets its own insanely popular
picture thread - 2000+ posts. Dr. Eldarion opens the
first two Cafe Press (http://www.cafepress.com)
stores during this time. The Something Awful thread
actually goes to over 30 pages and the server whigs
out. Postings disappear, the thread is "hacked"
closed.

Nov. 14, 2000: JRR, one of the SA forum regulars, releases Invasion
of the Gabber Robots, the Zero Wing remix. This is
the catchy tune heard in the Flash animation. You
can listen to it and visit their mp3.com site here:
http://www.mp3s.com/tlmom

Nov. 28, 2000: Ars Technica (http://www.arstechnica.com, a well know
"geek" news site posts election coverage and wrap ups.
"All your votes are belong to us!!" is the tag line.

Dec. 16, 2000: Tribal War's (http://www.tribalwar.com/) thread
begins.

Jan. 12, 2001: Part 4 of "A Winner Is You," Hubert's game quote
based storyline is posted. It passes completely
beneath the pop culture radar. View it here:
http://hubert.retrogames.com/awinnerisyou.htm)

Jan. 14, 2001: www.Solidsharkey.com puts up a history. The Genesis
version of Zero Wing was NOT a US release. In
English, it was released only in the UK and South
America for their Megadrive (Genesis) systems.

Feb. 11, 2001: Eskimo Bob (http://www.eskimobob.com/), episode 12
- a precursor to the Flash Animation yet to come?

Feb. 13, 2001: www.memepool.com posts about AYBABTU. They link to
the Tribal War thread. In the "in" circles, the fad
takes off again.

Feb. 15, 2001: Bad_CRC of Tribal War releases the Flash music video.
There are some copyright issues and a quickly updated
version with credits is released. It spreads like
wildfire and delivers Toaplan's Zero Wing unto the
masses.

Feb. 16, 2001: The "phenomenon" begins. Message boards, call-in
shows, and pop-culture cannot escape.

Feb. 19, 2001: Work on this FAQ begins. Zero Wing has a notable lack
of coverage on GameFAQs.com and this document's
author seeks to change that.

Feb 21-23, 2001: According to CNet / ZDNet GameSpot's
(http://www.videogames.com/) "Instant Poll" from
2/21/2001 through 2/23/2001:
Question:
How are you gentlemen !!

Responses: (3,895 votes - 101%?!)
All your base are belong to us. 1282 (33%)
For great justice. 187 (5%)
Main screen turn on. 127 (3%)
Take off every 'ZIG' !! 137 (4%)
What you say !! 821 (21%)
No opinion 929 (24%)
Somebody set up us the bomb !! 412 (11%)

Late Feb. 2001: The San Francisco Chronicle (both print & web versions)
runs a story about AYBABTU. OverClocked prints another
Zero Wing comic. Sluggy Freelance (2/26) runs a comic.
Salon.com runs their own AYBABTU story. UK's The
Register (http://www.theregister.com) runs a story.
NewsBytes (http://www.newsbytes.com) runs a story. A
caller into the syndicated radio show, "Loveline,"
mentions AYBABTU (2/22/2001) - Check out the Retrogames
history (http://hubert.retrogames.com/history.htm) for
mp3's. TechTV and Wired.com run stories. Even User
Friendly (http://www.userfriendly.org) gets into the
act! Time Magazine (2/26) runs a story. GameSpot
(http://www.gamespot.com) runs an AYBABTU poll on
their videogames page. Somebody chalks "All Your Base
Are Belong to Us" on the roof of Wean Hall at Carnegie
Mellon University. The AYBABTU fad is getting way,
way overdone.

Feb. 27, 2001: MP3.com pulls "Invasion of the Gabber Robots" from
their site, citing copyright infringement. They quickly
put it back up once they realize that Toaplan no longer
exists.

Feb. 28, 2001: AYBABTU debuts at #46 on the Lycos 50 as a bonafide web
fad. Toaplan, T.L.M.O.M, the flash animation, and this
FAQ are all cited. Yet ANOTHER User Friendly strip. UK's
"The Guardian" (http://www.guardian.co.uk) runs a story.

Feb/Mar 2001: A rash of AYBABTU taggings, defacements, and banner
raisings occurs. The Georgia Tech, U. of Pennsylvania
and Texas A&M capmuses experience leaflet and poster
campaigns. Someone hacks the Dutch Railways web site
to say the phrase, "All your trains are belong to us."
Similarly, the dutch postal code web site gets tagged
with the phrase "All your postcode are belong to us!!"
The folks from the Netherlands musn't have much to do,
as the Dutch Euro site was tagged with "All your Euros
are belong to us!!" In the meantime, freaks hang banners
from bridges in Australia and California, USA. AYBABTU
is painted on Coolidge Bridge in Northampton, Mass. A
laserprinted banner even appears in the windows of the
Angelfire home office. At one University of California
campus, someone even found the time to pilfer rock from
a rock garden to make a huge ground pattern of "All your
base are belong to us" Etc. Etc., people are nuts.

March 1, 2001: The Detroit Free Press (print and WWW - www.freep.com)
ran a story and even quoted this FAQ! "Spawn Web craze,
game does": There are inaccuracies, but nothing this
history or the Retrogames history can't resolve.
(03/01/2001 Tech section) or on the web at:
http://www.freep.com/money/tech/mwend28_20010228.htm

March 3, 2001: The Daily Mirror (http://www.mirror.co.uk/), one of
England's most famous newspapers, runs a story. One
of Hewlett Packard's web gurus starts sprinkling
Zero Wing images across monitor advertisements. Also
if you visit the home page for Doom 3 located at
http://www.ua-corp.com/, you'll see "All your base are
belong to us!" if you highlight the entire page with
your mouse or do a "View Source." - Amusing.

March 4, 2001: In the coolest AYBABTU tagging ever, five students at
Bowling Green State University displayed the phrase
against a dormitory using ~125mW lasers. For as long
as the site remains up, check it out here:
http://avians.net/skan/aybabtu/

March 5, 2001: Ha ha! Rare's (http://www.rareware.com) website is
currently showing "All your squirrel are belong to
Rare." if you highlight the Conker's Bad Fur Day
images. (Thanks NES Boy for this tip)

March 6-7, 2001: mp3.com includes The Laziest Men on Mars in their
newsletter. TLMOM has made more than $5,000 in
mp3.com earnings since their 'Invasion of the
Gabber Robots' was paired with Bad_CRC's flash
animation. Still, the fad is now #36 on the Lycos
50 - up 10 spots - with no sign of getting old.
USA Today and usatoday.com have features AYBABTU.
mpXreview (www.mpxreview.com) has a great article
up surrounding the phenomenon. You can check it
at:
http://www.mpxreview.com/reviews/983907810.shtml
The Internet TOURBUS (www.tourbus.com runs a story
bout the AYBABTU "conspiracy." Newgrounds
(www.newgrounds.com) now has an AYBABTU page

March 8, 2001: Jiminy Critic (www.jiminycritic.com) reviewed the
flash animation. You can view it, with humor, at:
http://www.jiminycritic.com/allyourbase.asp
Acclaim Sports just posted 16 new shots of their
upcoming All Star Baseball 2002. Among them, shot
13 features the AYBABTU catch phrase in a stadium
advertisement. You can check it out while it's up:
http://www.acclaimsports.com/asb2002/screenshots/13.html

Mar. 9-11, 2001: Fox News - www.foxnews.com - runs a story both
online and on their Fox News TV network. Fox 4 News,
the Fox affiliate for the Dallas / Fort Worth area,
ran a story. They showed a few photoshopped images,
including the fake billboard featuring George W. Bush.
(Thanks Jjukil for this report) ESPN.com mentions the
fad.

March 11, 2001: Dutch National Radio played "Invasion of the Gabber
Robots" on their "Cyber Top 50." StarWars.com has
AYBABTU as a mouseover highlight on some of their
images now. Also, the WhenIGrowUp.net website
has posted a HILARIOUS AYBABTU Scooby-Doo! parody.
Check it at:
http://www.whenigrowup.net/doodads/aytabtu.html

March 12, 2001: The nationally syndicated comic FoxTrot, by Bill Adams,
includes a running "All your base are belong to us!!"
joke. The phrase is mentioned six (6) times! Read it
on www.foxtrot.com at:
http://www.foxtrot.com/comics/pages/ft010312.html
(Thanks to G. Landis and KhalaBlade for this tip)

March 15, 2001: The LA Times (www.latimes.com & Print) has run a
story. Someone from the Eijiro English-Japanese
dictionary contacted me to obtain screens of the US
intro. It seems that not only was "All Your Base Are
Belong to Us" included as a phrase, but an effort is
being made to include the entire intro - in correct
and "incorrect" versions. Their website URL is below,
but I think you have to be a member.
(http://member.nifty.ne.jp/eijiro/index.html)

March 21, 2001: The Onion (http://www.theonion.com) ran this
story in their 03/21/2001 issue:
Congress Adds 'All Your Base Are Belong To Us'
Amendment To Bankruptcy Bill (WASHINGTON, DC) --
Seeking to increase fiscal accountability among
citizens who have no chance to survive make their
time, the House of Representatives added an "All
Your Base Are Belong To Us" amendment Monday to
H.R. 333, the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and
Consumer Protection Act of 2001. "What you say!!!"
shouted the bill's sponsor, Rep. George Gekas (R-PA),
following the amendment's approval. "This bill will
not only make debt-ridden Americans more accountable,
but it has the added benefit of taking off every
'zig' for great justice." Opponents of the amendment
protested that it would potentially set up U.S. the
bomb.

March 23, 2001: "Invasion of the Gabber Robots" and The Laziest Men
On Mars is in the mp3.com newsletter once again.
They've made about $8500 to date thanks to the
popularity of AYBABTU and their catchy tunes.
AYBABTU has "fallen" to #38 in the Lycos 50.

March 28, 2001: The wily J Allard (yes, that one) gave props to
Zero Wing in an interview he did with Planet
X-Box. Check it:
http://www.planetxbox.com/features/interviews/jallard/

April 01, 2001: In a fitting twist of fate, Zero Wing is #50 on the
Lycos Top 50. It will likely be gone the next week.

April 10, 2001: Zero Wing gone from the Lycos Top 50.

Ad Nauseum: You get the idea - there's just too much out there
to track any further.

Historical documents you may wish to view:
(history) http://hubert.retrogames.com/history.htm
(SA Pics) http://www.planetstarseige.com/allyourbase/index2.html
(entirety) http://www.allyourbase.net/
(info) http://www.engrish.com/

Since the phenomenon seems dead, I no longer track relevant AYBABTU
news.

======================================
C1. The Introduction (English version)
======================================

In A.D. 2101
War was beginning

Outside Ship - An explosion occurs.

Ship's Bridge
Captain: "What happen ?"
Mechanic: "Somebody set up us the bomb."

Close-Up of Excited Communications Officer
Operator: "We get signal."
Captain: "What !"

Ship's Bridge
Operator: "Main screen turn on."
(CATS appears)
Captain: "It's you !!"

Close up of CATS
CATS: "How are you gentlemen !!"
CATS: "All your base are belong to us."
CATS: "You are on the way to destruction."

Close up of captain & CATS
Captain: "What you say !!"
CATS: "You have no chance to survive make your time."

Ship's Bridge
CATS: "Ha ha ha ha ...."

Close up of Forlorn Captain
Operator: "Captain !!"

Ship's Bridge (ZIGs on monitors)
Captain: "Take off every 'ZIG'!!"

Shows a ZIG pilot powering up
Captain: "You know what you doing."

Shows a ZIG moving into launch position
Captain: "Move 'ZIG'."

ZIGs on monitors, Bridge Explodes
Captain: "For great justice."

The ship explodes.
A lone ZIG zooms into view!

To see the intro itself, visit:
http://zanyvg.overclocked.org

For high-rez stills from the video, visit:
http://members.nbci.com/finagler/base/index.htm

=======================================
C2. The Introduction (Japanese version)
=======================================

A.D. 2101
The battle began

Outside Ship - An explosion occurs.

Ship's Bridge
Captain: "What happened!?"
Mechanic: "Someone detonated bombs all around us!"

Close-Up of Excited Communications Officer
Operator: "Captain! Incoming transmission!"
Captain: "What!?"

Ship's Bridge
Operator: "Image coming through on the main monitor."
(CATS appears)
Captain: "You... you are...!!"

Close up of CATS
CATS: "You appear to be preoccupied, gentlemen." (sarcasm)
CATS: "Thanks to the cooperation of the UN forces,
all of your bases now belong to CATS."
CATS: "Your ship too, shall soon be destroyed."

Close up of captain & CATS
Captain: "Im.. Impossible!" (or "F.. Foolishness!")
CATS: "We thank you for your cooperation." (more sarcasm)
CATS: "Enjoy the remaining moments of your lives...."

Ship's Bridge
CATS: "Hahahahaha ...."

Close up of Forlorn Captain
Operator: "Captain!?"

Ship's Bridge (ZIGs on monitors)
Captain: "Launch all ZIG fighters!"

Shows a ZIG pilot powering up
Captain: "All we can do is entrust it to them..."

Shows a ZIG moving into launch position
Captain: "Give us hope for our future..."

ZIGs on monitors, Bridge Explodes
Captain: "We're counting on you, ZIG!!"

The ship explodes.
A lone ZIG zooms into view!

[translated by WooJin Lee, Mark Rosa, and two sheepishly anonymous
persons from the #ga IRC channel on irc.gamesnet.net.]

=========================================
C3. The Plot as the Introduction Suggests
=========================================

Taking into account the three organizations mentioned in the actual
Japanese translation, we're to believe three major powers control
the spaceways in the year 2101. They are the United Nations, CATS,
and a third organization - the one the hapless souls aboard that
red ship belong to. Japanese animation and manga have been full
of condescending references to the west ever since the end of
World War 2, which leads me to believe that the third, unnamed
organization is Japan. (Don't hold me to that) So you've got the
UN (the west), Japan/Asia, and CATS (an alien race).

So, in the year 2101 CATS teamed up with the UN and, in a surprise
move, took over or destroyed ALL of Japan's planetary bases. For
some wacky reason, the lone ship in the intro is the focus of
the CATS leader's personal attention. A lone ZIG fighter (Code
Name: ZIG-01) manages to launch before the ship explodes.

You are the pilot of this lone ZIG. It is up to you to wipe
the menace of CATS from the galaxy, hopefully showing the
UN the folly of their ways in the meantime.

Can a solitary ZIG defeat this alien menace and reunite east
and west in peace? "Move 'ZIG'! For great justice!"

===========================
D. How can I get Zero Wing?
===========================

You want to actually play Zero Wing. It's not that great of a game,
but alright.

If you want to purchase the game, go to your local used game store or
visit eBay - you're hunting for "Zero Wing" for the SEGA Megadrive. It
was never released in the US on the Genesis, only in Europe and South
America. You may need a country adaptor to play it in a Genesis,
although probably not.

If you want to emulate the game, the first thing you need is a Genesis
emulator. A good site for this is http://www.vintagegaming.com/.

Then you need to find the .rom image. Guess what, roms are copyrighted
material, so I can't help you find one. However, if you check out sites
such as http://www.emux.com/ or http://www.classicgaming.com/ I bet
you'll strike paydirt.

===========================
E. How do I play Zero Wing?
===========================

Zero Wing is a standard side-scrolling shooter. The game's main
selling point is its lavishly huge boss characters and the fact
that it's not "b*tch hard" like most games in the genre.

Your ship flies from left to right. Enemy ships and weapon fire
will come toward you - don't touch any of that stuff. Once in
awhile, you'll destroy a fat lazy ship that will drop power ups -
those, you can touch. You get 3 lives. When you die, you'll
restart from a set point within the level.

Controls:
D-Pad -> Steer your spacecraft
A button -> Fire weapon
B button -> Prisoner Beam

The tractor (or Prisoner beam as it's called in the arcade game)
beam lets you grab small enemies and use them as a shield, much
like the renowned Genesis shooter, Gaiares.

Power Ups: (names taken from arcade game)
Green - Homing Unit
Blue - Laser Unit
Red - Valcan Unit, becomes a spread shot
Blue Insignia - Speed Up Unit, increases speed AND earns extra lives
Bomb - looks like an option, release it or get shot and it explodes!

Collect 3 power ups to upgrade your weapon to maximum. The first RED
power up collected will give you two "option" pods that will increase
your firing range (automatic spread shot) AND act as a shield for
shots above and below you. Once you've obtained the "option" pods
with a RED item, you can safely collect other colored power ups to
upgrade all three weapon streams.

E.g. Always grab Red, Green, Green, Green if you wanna kick butt.

If your weapon is at level 3 and you accidentally collect a
different colored power up, you'll have that shot at level 3
instead of starting anew.

Each time you collect a fourth similar power up, you'll get 5000pts.
Sometimes, when you've collected enough insignias, you'll earn an
extra life. RARELY, when you snag an insignia, you'll earn 10 lives!

If you're already carrying a bomb and detonate an object that would
yield another bomb power up - you'll get a Purple Tank power up
instead. It's the size of a small enemy. Snag it and you'll get an
EXTRA LIFE plus, GET THIS, A FOURTH SHOT POWER LEVEL. That's right -
the homing unit becomes "giant arrowhead of death," the Laser shot
becomes the "tree-trunk laser beams," and the Valcan shot becomes
an INSANE spread shot. (Thanks to Grant King for clarifications)

The game has 8 stages... but you'll need to play through it three
times to see all the endings. (Bleah)

=============
F. Boss Guide
=============

Stage1 - Location: Natols - Big Purple Alien
This alien looks like a giant mutated fetus. It'll launch blue
plasma balls at you - avoid them. Try to shoot at its forehead
or mouth. He'll stay on the right half of the screen and move
up and down. Stick to the left and avoid his shots while
shooting.

Stage2 - Location: Legrous - Twin Ball Ships
This pair isn't the best boss in a shooter. Near the end of
the level you will encounter a round ship with a few gun
turrets mounted on it. It will fire blue lasers, a few
bullets, and launch semi-homing missiles at you. Keep firing
anywhere at him and move up and down to dogdge his shots.
You'll face a purple version of the same a few seconds later.
Vanquish both to end the level.

Stage3 - Location: Pleades - Blue Mech
And you thought that spaceship mini-boss was big. You'll
face a blue metal robot at the end of this level. He'll shoot
lasers from his upper and lower body, as well as homing
bullets from his stomach. Watch out for the big fireballs
coming from his whopping hand-cannon too. The homing bullets
will prove your greatest worry, although he'll walk quite
close to you from time to time.

Stage4 - Location: Aquese - Floating Weapons Platform
Wow - this stage is short. After flying across a giant
floating weapons platform, you'll come to the end of it.
Shoot the big bundle of wires at the bottom with a homing
shot to release it - if you want to. Either way it's going
to break loose and go wild with purple spread shots and a
few blue lasers, as well as plasma bubbles from time to time.
This is a rather large boss, so you won't have as much room
to move as you'd like. You'll need to destroy the front
midsection and main body to beat it.

Stage5 - Location: Submarine Tunnel - Fusion Reactor
The mid-boss on this level is tough, so I thought I'd briefly
mention something. Don't be lulled into flying into the
center of its floating shield devices. Stay back and shoot it
while dodging its purple spread shots. On HARD the shield orbs
will fire straight blue lasers. As for the actual boss of this
level, it's a giant reactor with five turbines - each of which
fires out a volley of aimed purple shots. Destroying the two
upper and lower engines is easy, but the one in back will take
about 40 or 50 shots. Watch out for the worm creature that
initially protects it, as it'll come out to harass you. On
harder difficuly levels, that worm is insanely quick.

Stage6 - Location: Barracade Zone - Armed Cubes
After fighting some armed cubes, you'll face three LARGE
armed cubes. Their weapons are weak - only forward facing
blue lasers. Their main attack though is their mass, they'll
move forward and back and up and down in an effort to ram you.
Stay to the upper left and you should do okay. On hard
difficulty, you may want to watch out for the middle one moving
forward and then up.

Stage7 - Location: Bellon - Floating Heart
The boss at the end of this H.R. Giger reminiscent stage
looks like an alien heart with a giant claw coming out of
its behind. The heart has no attacks other than moving around.
The claw will try and grab you though and has decent range.
Note: If you damage the claw too much, it will shatter into
a number of hovering asteroid fragments, which will then
just wobble around blocking your shots. Your option tanks
can destroy them, but they'll respawn. You can tractor and
launch them too - whee!

Stage8 - Location: Gerbarra - Alien Train Tank
The mid-boss of this stage is no fun either, but if you
remember to swoop between its purple shots and under it
during its missile volley, you should be fine. The main boss
of this level is annoying and huge. It will fire two homing
charges from it's lower turrets, usually in tandem with a
straight blue laser shot from the upper turret. The ugly
creature at the top will also fly toward you, AND home
missiles will launch out of the green orb on the machine's
back. There are two strategies for beating this. 1. Sit in
the back/middle of the screen and swoop low to avoid
oncoming attacks, while firing at the red case on the back.
2. Park yourself just in front of the train level with the
glass-cased creature and dodge it plus the missiles while
constantly shooting the red case on the back. Once the escape
pod launches, you've beaten the game.

Guess what, each time you beat the game, you begin again on
stage 1. Every time you beat all 8 stages, you get a newer
and better ending. (Well, the first three times anyway.)

==========
G. Endings
==========

Don't have the stomach to beat the game once, let alone three
times? I don't blame you - here's what you'd see in the Genesis
version.

ROUND1 ENDING
"Congratulations!"
Watch 10 little purple "raisin" guys dance for you.

ROUND2 ENDING
"Congratulations!"
Art shot of the train in flames.
Credits rolling off to the side.
ZIG plane swoops into the frame and sits there.

ROUND3 ENDING
"Congratulations!"
Your battered ZIG putters through space
A giant red ship locks it in a tractor beam
A green planet. The giant red ship floats into view.
The giant red ship burns its engines and flies around the planet!
A big purple "raisin" guy winks at you.
(No credits this time?)

Once you've seen all that, all you can do is keep
playing until you run out of lives. If you're that
good to make it through three times without using
cheats, codes, or saves, you are a shooter God.

Note: The raisin guys are a common appearance in Toaplan games.
They've been in Donpachi, Dodonpachi, and Batsugun.

And here's what you'd see if you beat the arcade version:

ARCADE ENDING (thanks Remy - www.utterer.com)
You'll see a text obscured by a bunch of dancing "raisin" aliens:
"CONGRATULATION !!
A.D.2111
ALL BASES OF CATS WERE
DESTROYED.
IT SEEMS TO BE PEACEFUL.
BUT IT IS INCORRECT.
CATS IS STILL ALIVE.
ZIG-01 MUST FIGHT
AGAINST CATS AGAIN.
AND DOWN WITH THEM
COMPLETELY! GOOD LUCK."

============================
H. More Info, Parodies, Etc.
============================

If you have any information to contribute to this FAQ, such as
sightings, merchandise sites, MP3 sites, or other info, email it
to me at: [email protected].

If you want to find out more about Toaplan and their games, check
out: http://www.toaplan.com

SHMUPS at ClassicGaming.Com has a review of Zero Wing:
http://classicgaming.com/shmups/reviews/zerowing/zerowing.htm

TV's Ian's Zero Wing AYBABTU history is also a wonderful resource
(mp3/apparel/info) document:
http://hubert.retrogames.com/article.php?sid=1

Zero Wing Parody Stores on Cafe Press are popping up like flies!
You can buy T-Shirts, drink mugs, and even mouse pads:
(The stars are my subjective ratings of how the merchandise looks.
And um, CafePress shirts tend to fade when washed, Caveat Emptor)

If you want to support Dr. Eldarion, the FIRST Cafe Press Zero
Wing Apparel guru: http://www.cafepress.com/dreldarion/

If you want to support toaplan.com, the VERY professional
Toaplan / Zero Wing fansite: http://www.cafepress.com/toaplan/

If you want to support TLMOM, creators of "The Invasion of the
Gabber Robots" theme song from the WILDLY hilarious flash
animation: http://www.cafepress.com/tlmom (or tlmom2)

If you want to support this FAQ's maintainer, who is still
very poor even though he has a decent job and works like
mad: http://www.cafepress.com/zerowingstuf/

The rest:
http://www.cafepress.com/dreld2 ****
http://www.cafepress.com/2101ad **** (two stores)
http://www.cafepress.com/discobase/ **** (DISCO SCOTTIE!!)
http://www.atomo.com/ayb.html *** (multiple stores)
http://www.cafepress.com/movezig/ *** (multiple stores)
http://www.cafepress.com/zwstore/ ***
http://www.cafepress.com/dreambase *** (dreamlin.com)
http://www.cafepress.com/gotbase ***
http://www.cafepress.com/arebelong2us ***
http://www.cafepress.com/zebenet ***
http://www.cafepress.com/zero_wing/ ***
http://www.cafepress.com/xarphnet ***
http://www.cafepress.com/everyzig/ **
http://www.cafepress.com/allyour/ **
http://www.cafepress.com/setupbomb ** (two stores)
http://www.cafepress.com/hanksstore **

You can buy AYBABTU bumper stickers now!:
http://www.makestickers.com/all_your_base_are_belong_to_us.asp

Want some MP3's? These links will take you to some AYBABTU
& Zero Wing inspired tunes:
http://www.mp3.com/tlmom - The Laziest Men on Mars.
http://www.mp3.com/paradisedecay - Paradise Decay.
http://www.mp3.com/lunaticdog - Lunatic Dog.
http://www.diffusionuk.freeserve.co.uk/allyour.htm
http://www.mp3.com/ayb - All Your Base
http://evolution-control.com/mp3/allyourbase - ZW Karaoke
http://www.spinnwebe.com/brainshots/?20010309 - AYFBA
http://www.ampcast.com/dreamlin - Dreamlin & AYBABTU
http://www.mp3.com/dreamlin - Same as Above
http://www.mp3.com/hazama - Not AYBABTU, but very game-ish.

This FAQ peaked at #11 on the GameFAQs Top 50 and was on the
chart for 31 days! This FAQ peaked at #1 on the GameFAQs Genesis
Top 10 and remained on the chart for 145 days!

The Zero Wing / All Your Base FAD took #46 in the Lycos Top 50 for
the week ending February 24, 2001 and #36 the week later. At week
4, it was at #38, and in week 5 it dropped to #50 and was gone.
The translation from this FAQ was also quoted in the story - neat!

THANKS go to Zany Video Game Quotes (zanyvg.overclocked.org),
Overclocked (www.overclocked.org), and Something Awful
(www.somethingawful.com) for starting this whole mess in the first
place.

Remember: "All your base are belong to us."

.end..