Question 1

What is Asciimation?

Accepted Answer

Asciimation is Simon Jansen's 1997 ASCII-art retelling of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. The original was distributed via the telnet command (towel.blinkenlights.nl) and later ported to a browser. This page hosts a faithful version of that browser port in modern HTML/JS.

Question 2

Is this all of Star Wars in ASCII?

Accepted Answer

It's the full original Asciimation script — Episode IV from the Tatooine opening to the Death Star explosion — rendered scene-by-scene in animated ASCII. Faithful to Simon's original framing and pacing.

Question 3

Can I still watch it via telnet?

Accepted Answer

The original telnet host (towel.blinkenlights.nl) was online for years and is sometimes still up. This browser version is a more reliable mirror that doesn't require a working telnet client.

Question 4

Are there controls?

Accepted Answer

The animation plays from start to finish in a single window. There's no scrubber — that's part of the experience. Refresh the page to start over.

ASCII Star Wars