For over two decades, typing telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl into a terminal was a rite of passage for geeks. It rewarded the curious with a full ASCII-art recreation of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope . However, users recently attempting this command are increasingly met with "Connection refused" or "Operation timed out" errors, leading to the dreaded question: Is for good? Current Status of the ASCII Star Wars Server
That service has been (since around 2021–2022 intermittently, and more permanently since mid-2023 for many users). The original server was maintained by a Dutch hacker group, but it seems the telnet daemon is no longer running. towel.blinkenlights.nl down
If you have any information about the current status of towel.blinkenlights.nl or efforts to revive it, please share in the comments below. For over two decades, typing telnet towel
It looks like you’re referring to the classic that used to run via Telnet at towel.blinkenlights.nl . Current Status of the ASCII Star Wars Server