Easy Mac Hacks: View Star Wars Episode IV in the Terminal

Every Monday we show you how to do something quick and cool using with Mac OS X. Sometimes it's a tutorial on a lesser-known feature, other times it's a trick that uses built-in functionality such as Terminal — either way, these simple tips can make life better and easier, and they don’t require any special knowledge. All you need to do is follow the instructions!

Sure, you've watched Star Wars Episode IV on the big screen, on your TV, and maybe even on your iOS device, but have you watched the ASCII version in the Terminal? We know this is an old trick, but we couldn't help but pass it around over the holidays as a way to entertain everyone in your family with the glorious retro renderings of R2-D2 and other of your other favorite Star Wars characters.

Whenever you to kick back with the Terminal and have a bit of entertainment, simply open the Terminal (located in /Applications/Utilities) on your Mac, and paste in the following command:

telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl

This command will use telnet to connect to the server towel.blinkenlights.nl. Once connected, it'll kick off the ASCII mastery, recreating Star Wars on your screen in all of its glory.

When the boss comes into your office, or you want to stop watching because you've already seen it 20 times in a row, then you can easily turn off the light show by closing the Terminal window and selecting Close when prompted.