#StarWarsDay: Star Wars Day 2015

What did Luke Skywalker say to his friends on midnight of May the third?

“May the Fourth be with you!”

Yes, corny jokes aside, it is 04-May-2015 and the geeks and nerds of the world are uniting for Star Wars Day 2015.

This has become a day to celebrate all things Star Wars related and help hype the new movies coming and sell more Star Wars toys and paraphernalia. I am sure that makes George Lucas (and now Disney) quite happy.

Now to help you celebrate the day I wanted to combine a number of really geeky things together to amuse you.

Have you heard for Simon Jansen from New Zealand? Maybe not, but you might have come across his project. Started in July 1997 still ongoing (last updated in January 2015), he has be recreating the original Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope) movie using text characters. Using ASCII characters his animation, ASCIIMATION now covers about 80% of the movie. You might ask Why? According to his FAQ, “Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.“.

Sten Spans, a Dutch Unix engineer, took Simon’s work and made it available from his Telnet server. Some people believed that this was an “Easter Egg” hidden in the command line of Windows, but it isn’t. It can be accessed from any device or operating system that has a Telnet client installed.

Note: You might need to go to Control Panel >> Programs and Features >> Turn Windows Features on and off and select the Telnet Client, then click OK to install Telnet on Windows.

Finally, there is Minecraft. Now owned by Microsoft, Minecraft is a another world wide phenomenon loved by geeks, nerds and children around the world. So, I present the following video for your pleasure:

Starwars ASCII (via Minecraft) (direct link)

 

Just in case you don’t like the silent treatment, here is a version which has had dialogue and music added:

Star Wars Asciimation With Sound (direct link)

 

For more information about Star Wars Day (and fun), check out the following sites:

• http://asciimation.co.nz/ (click to visit site and watch original animation)
• telnet://towel.blinkenlights.nl/ (click to watch via Telnet, needs client)
• http://blinkenlights.nl/
• http://www.starwars.com/may-the-4th
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Day
• http://maythefourthbewithyou.com/

Enjoy today, but be careful tomorrow as you could get caught up in the “Revenge of the Fifth”.

David

PS: Did you see the surprise in the first video at 13:59?

This article was originally posted on http://www.winthropdc.com/blog.