Have you ever watched Star Wars and thought, "This is great, but I really wish I could see it animated in alphanumeric characters"? Well thanks to some super fans and with the use of the Telnet connection program, you can watch Episode IV rendered in letters, numbers, and symbols. See Step 1 below to learn how.

EditSteps

1
Open the Command Prompt. You can open the Command Prompt by pressing ⊞ Win+R and typing cmd. Windows 8 users can also press ⊞ Win+X and select Command Prompt from the menu.
- In order to view the ASCII Star Wars movie, you will need to have an internet connection.
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2
Install Telnet. Most newer versions of Windows no longer include Telnet, which is the client required to connect to the ASCII Star Wars movie. This includes Windows Vista, 7, and 8. You can use the Command Prompt to install Telnet as long as you are logged in as the Administrator.
- Type pkgmgr /iu:"TelnetClient" and press ↵ Enter
- Enter the Administrator password or confirm that you want to proceed if you already have Administrator access.
- Restart the Command Prompt. You can close the Command Prompt by typing exit or by clicking the close button in the corner of the window.
3
Start Telnet. With Telnet installed, type telnet into the Command Prompt and press ↵ Enter. This will start the Telnet interface.
4
Open a connection. On the Microsoft Telnet command line, type o and press ↵ Enter. The command line will change to ( to ).
5
Enter in the ASCII Star Wars address. Type towel.blinkenlights.nl and press ↵ Enter. The ASCII Star Wars movie will begin playing after the initial credits. Enjoy the show!

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EditTips

Once Telnet is installed on Windows, you can open the Run box by pressing ⊞ Win+R and type telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl. This save you from having to open Telnet through the command prompt.
You can connect to the same address using Telnet clients on OS X and Linux to watch as well.