"Too Much Time On My Hands" is a title of a Styx song (remember them) and I can only imagine that the creators of the ASCII version of "Star Wars: Episode IV, A New Hope" had way too much time on their hands. I do not even have time to watch the whole thing. The telnet version kept timing out on me. This had to take a very long time to do and some imagination to depict each character. It also takes some imagination on the viewer's part to watch. You must have seen the movie a few times to fill in the blanks.
I was 11 years old the summer that Star Wars came out and was enthralled by it. I have seen it numerous times since then, built my share of Lego Tie-Fighters long before there were Star Wars specific Lego pieces and was somewhat disappointed with the prequels that George Lucas later produced, although I saw them all and have them on DVD.
To view the ACSII version of Star Wars, open a command or terminal window and type: telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl
After some research I found the web site where you can view the ASCII animation within your web browser and actually fast forward it. It appears that this is a work in progress. So far the animation only goes as far as the scene where Luke finds the princess on the Death Star and it was completed on April 18, 2006. The project was started July 1997, so it may be a while before you see the Death Star explode like a spilt bowl of alphabet soup. For more answers to the many questions you must have, check out the FAQ page.
Below is a screen shot of a scene with of R2D2 and C3PO on the captured rebel ship.
The creator is Simon Jansen from New Zealand and he has also created a Jet Powered Beer Cooler, has fully restored a 1978 MGB with numerous photos documenting the process, his own Tardis (you Dr. Who fans know what I am talking about) with a game console inside and outfitted a Camaro slot card racer with a video camera. He has a video online with instructions on how to create your own. Like I said, the guy has some time on his hands. He would be fun to have as a neighbor.