This wikiHow teaches you how to watch a version of 'Star Wars' rendered entirely in ASCII characters (by folks with a lot of free time) using Command Prompt on Windows or Terminal on Mac. Open Command Prompt. You can open Command Prompt by...

On Windows

1. Open Command Prompt. You can open Command Prompt by pressing ⊞ Win+R and typing cmd. Windows 8 or 10 users can also press ⊞ Win+X and select Command Prompt from the menu.

   1. In order to view the ASCII Star Wars movie, you will need to have an Internet connection.
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.

   1. Type pkgmgr /iu:'TelnetClient' and press ↵ Enter.
   2. In Windows 10, open Control Panel, and click Programs, click Turn Windows features on or off. Then check Telnet Client, click OK, and wait for the installation to finish.
   3. If prompted, enter an admin password, or confirm that you want to proceed if you already have admin access.
3. Close Command Prompt. Do so by typing exit or by clicking the close button (X) in the corner of the window.
4. Type telnet and press ↵ Enter. This launches the Telnet interface.
5. Type o and press ↵ Enter. This is the command to open a Telnet connection. The command line will change to ( to ).
6. Type towel.blinkenlights.nl and press ↵ Enter. This connects you to the host and launches the movie after some initial credits.

If you add some interfaces to this list, you allow MAC telnet to that interface. Disabled (disabled=yes) item means that interface is not allowed to accept MAC telnet sessions on that interface. All interfaces iss the default setting to allow MAC teltet on any interface. Example To enable MAC telnet server on ether1 interface only.

On Mac

Mac OS X includes a command-line SSH client as part of the operating system. To use it, goto Finder, and selext Go - Utilities from the top menu. Then look for Terminal. Terminal can be used to get a local terminal window, and also supports SSH connections to remote servers. The Terminal app is the default CLI that comes bundled with the Mac, and is a rather. ZOC is a telnet client and terminal emulator for Windows. Download this telnet and client and other communications software by Emtec - free trial versions are available. Telnet client for Windows and macOS - Download our Telnet Client ZOC and Other Software.

1. Open Terminal. To do so, click the magnifying glass icon in the upper-right corner of the screen, type terminal and click Terminal when it appears in the search results.

   1. Terminal is the Mac OS equivalent of Command Prompt.
2. Type telnet and press ⏎ Return. This launches the Telnet interface which you need to connect to the server that hosts ASCII 'Star Wars.'
3. Type o and press ⏎ Return. This is the command to open a Telnet connection. The command line will change to ( to ).
4. Type towel.blinkenlights.nl and press ⏎ Return. This connects you to the host and launches the movie after some initial credits.

If you are new to the process of Telnet and have never accessed a Telnet BBS system before, the following is a mini-tutorial of how the Telnet process works and how to use a Telnet client.

Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) have been around long before the Internet. Traditional BBS systems that were “dial-up” based were accessed by dialing them directly with your analog telephone modem. This meant you used a “terminal program” to access these BBS systems. Accessing BBS systems via the Internet also requires a terminal program called a Telnet Client. While most operating systems have a built-in Telnet Client, we do not recommend these as they do not display the graphics correctly. Instead, we suggest any of the following free Telnet Client programs for your operating system (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, etc.)

Telnet Client Programs

(Recommended)

SyncTerm (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, etc.)

NetRunner (Windows, Linux)

EtherTerm (Windows, Linux)

mTelnet (Windows, OS/2)

There are other Telnet clients will work, but they are not free:

ZOC (Windows, Mac OS X)

NetTerm (Windows)

Command Line Telnet

(Not Recommended)

You can also use the command line from your operating system. Though this will work, the graphics may or may not display correctly.

Windows

Mac Telnet Not Found

By default, Windows does not install the Telnet Client in Windows anymore. You will need to “turn on” the Telnet Client first. Once that is turned on, you can either open up a Command Prompt, or run the Telnet command from the Run menu.

Click on Start, then Run. Then type in:

Telnet yourdomain.com

Where “yourdomain.com” is either a domain name (example – bbs.dmine.net) or a number (example – 127.0.0.1)

Example: telnet bbs.dmine.net

or

telnet 127.0.0.1

Telnet From A Mac

Linux, Mac OS X and other Unix

For Linux – Some Linux distributions do not have the Telnet Client installed. Run the appropriate “yum” command to install the Telnet client for your particular Linux distribution. Once the Telnet client is installed, open up a Terminal window. Then type in:

Telnet yourdomain.com

Where “yourdomain.com” is either a domain name (example – bbs.dmine.net) or a number (example – 127.0.0.1)

Example: telnet bbs.dmine.net

or

Telnet Client Mac

telnet 127.0.0.1

Telnet For Mac Terminal Port

Last updated: March 5, 2016