Games of the 8-, 16- & 32-bit era
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Zero Wing

TitleZero Wing
First release1989
DeveloperToaplan
PublishersKaga Create, Sega, Taito, Toaplan
PlatformsArcade, Mega Drive / Genesis, PC (Windows), PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16
Genreshorizontally scrolling shooter, shoot 'em up
Players1 player
Co-opNo
Releases
Arcade: 1989-09-04
Mega Drive / Genesis: 1991-01-01 (NTSC-J), 1991-01-01 (PAL)
Wikidata IDQ191965

Zero Wing is an horizontal shooter game where the player is in control of a ZIG, an escape pod released after its main ship was attacked and destroyed by the evil cyborg CATS, bent on taking over the world. Like most games in the genre, there are three color-coded weapons: red (scatter), green (homing) and blue (lasers). Each weapon has three levels of power, and to obtain those, similar upgrades must be collected sequentially. However, what makes the game unique is the ability to use a traction beam to trap an enemy and then throw him against his peers, destroying them. The game (more precisely, the European PAL version of it) is known for being the origin of the grammatically incorrect phrase in the English translation, All your base are belong to us, which has since become an internet phenomenon.

Description: TheGamesDB (community-contributed, no licence stated; internal use only) Facts from Wikidata (CC0), gaps filled from TheGamesDB and Arcade Database (ADB). Only retro platforms tracked by this site are listed; the year is the earliest release date recorded on Wikidata.
Sources
Wikidata (Q191965) · last updated 2026-09-27 · CC0
TheGamesDB (31216) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only
TheGamesDB (7392,17125) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only
Arcade Database (ADB) (zerowing) · last updated 2026-10-15 · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · internal use only
Arcade Database ADB
MAME romsetzerowing
Title at ADBZero Wing (2P set)
ManufacturerToaplan
Year1989
GenreShooter / Flying Horizontal
Players2
MAME driver statusGOOD
Zero Wing – Flyer
Flyer
Zero Wing – Marquee
Marquee
Zero Wing – Cabinet
Cabinet
Zero Wing – Title
Title
Zero Wing – In-game
In-game
Artwork: ADB (Arcade Database); artwork © original manufacturer (Toaplan); snaps by ProgettoSnaps via ADB. Non-free, internal use only (hotlinked, not downloaded).
Scraping using Arcade Database by motoschifo · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · romset via Wikidata P2451 (mame-title+year) · fetched 2026-10-15 05:30 UTC · no fields filled (other sources take precedence)
Image credits
Box art, Logos, Artwork (4): Source: TheGamesDB (user-uploaded) · © Kaga Create · internal use only. TheGamesDB page
Screenshots (1): Source: libretro-thumbnails (upstream libretro-thumbnails (art by developers/publishers; see repo README)) · © Kaga Create · internal use only.
Sprites
No sprite sheets yet. Find sprites on The Spriters Resource ↗ /
Videos
Arcade Longplay [282] Zero Wing
World-of-Longplays · Arcade version · longplay · 1:12:11auto-matched
Watch on YouTube ↗ · auto:channel-harvest, checked 2026-10-25 18:42 UTC
Zero Wing PC Engine Gameplay Longplay By Urien84
By Urien84 Longplays · PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 version · longplay · 46:43auto-matched
Watch on YouTube ↗ · auto:channel-harvest, checked 2026-10-25 18:42 UTC
"Auto-matched" videos were found automatically (title + platform match via the YouTube Data API) and may occasionally be wrong. Videos are hosted by YouTube (embedded via youtube-nocookie.com; nothing loads from YouTube until you press play) and belong to their channels.
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