Star Wars ASCIImation

When I first discovered the Internet, it was strictly a text-only affair. Although some hearty souls were trading images through clever tricks like binhexing, most of us were limited in our online expression to what we could depict in QWERTY. Or rather, in ASCII - the designation for the standard set of text characters.

But images were compelling, and the clever and the artistic among us developed ASCII art. Smilies are the simplest form of ASCII art. Roses were a common subject:

@}-`-,--

Cows were also a favorite:

                                         /\                  __
                                        /  \                 ||
             (__)                 (__)  \  /               (_||_)
             SooS                 (oo)   \/                 (oo)
      /------S\/S          /-------\/    /S          /-------\/
     / |     ||           / |     ||    /  S        / |     ||
    *  ||----||          *  ||----||___/    S      *  ||----||
       ^^    ^^             ^^    ^^                  ^^    ^^
    This cow belonged     Ben Franklin owned       Abe Lincoln's
  to George Washington       this cow                   cow

It was only a matter of time before someone would try their hand at ASCII animation - and what more likely candidate for ASCIImation than the original geek movie - Star Wars?

Star Wars ASCIImation is a continuing project begun in 1997 to depict the entire 1977 film using only ASCII text characters:

                                     /~\
                                    |oo )      We're doomed!
                                    _\=/_
                    ___        #   /  _  \   #
                   /() \        \\//|/.\|\\//
                 _|_____|_       \/  \_/  \/
                | | === | |         |\ /|
                |_|  O  |_|         \_ _/
                 ||  O  ||          | | |
                 ||__*__||          | | |
                |~ \___/ ~|         []|[]
                /=\ /=\ /=\         | | |
________________[_]_[_]_[_]________/_]_[_\_________________________

A remarkable amount of work has already gone into this, but the project has hardly left Tatooine. Expect another ten to fifteen years of animation before this puppy's a wrap. Still, it's worth checking out, just to stand in awe of its geektitude!