Every one of us has watched at least one episode of Star Wars movie series either on television, on a computer or in a theater. Star Wars is a movie series with aliens fighting each other for galaxies and such stuff. There is nothing new in it. But wait, have you watched an ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) version of Star Wars and that too in Windows using Telnet? A network protocol known only to computer wizards. Well if you have not, then you must do it now!
There is a partial version of Star Wars Episode IV movie done entirely in ASCII characters that you can watch in the Windows operating system (or any OS that supports Telnet). The only thing required to watch it is an internet connection.

To watch it on Windows XP, Mac OS X and Linux
On Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 7 and Windows Vista
Telnet is turned off by default in the latest versions of Windows. So, in order to watch Star Wars, you must first enable Telnet by going to Control Panel › Programs › Turn Windows Feature On or Off and ticking the Telnet client check box. After doing that, follow the steps given below:-
If you do not need Telnet after seeing the movie, you can turn off the Telnet client Windows feature.
There is a partial version of Star Wars Episode IV movie done entirely in ASCII characters that you can watch in the Windows operating system (or any OS that supports Telnet). The only thing required to watch it is an internet connection.
To watch it on Windows XP, Mac OS X and Linux
- Go to Start, Run. (Only for Windows users)
- Now type "telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl" without the quotes and press Enter. Users of Mac OS X and Linux can directly execute this code in the terminal window.
On Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 7 and Windows Vista
Telnet is turned off by default in the latest versions of Windows. So, in order to watch Star Wars, you must first enable Telnet by going to Control Panel › Programs › Turn Windows Feature On or Off and ticking the Telnet client check box. After doing that, follow the steps given below:-
- Go to Start, Search in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 10 and Windows 11. On Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, open the main Start page.
- Type Telnet and press Enter.
- In the following Command Prompt window, type "o" without quotes and press Enter.
- Now type "towel.blinkenlights.nl" without the quotes and press Enter to load the movie on your screen.
If you do not need Telnet after seeing the movie, you can turn off the Telnet client Windows feature.