See The World In ASCII

Times Square

Basically, any place with a Google Street View panorama can now be viewed in ASCII. It’s a really cool trick! It’s possible thanks to a bunch of open Google Street View tools and this Canadian guy, who’s been working on ASCII transformations for a while.

(One caveat: the map search is a little hinky, so you may need to click around the area a few times before the site finds a panorama to load.)

It’s particularly fun because Google’s been building out Street View for quite a while now, so the database really does show some of the more interesting places on Earth — all of which now can look like a computer printout from the mid-80s. For instance:

3. Here’s the Oval Office.

4. Here’s a Shinto Shrine in Itsukushima.

5. Here’s Stonehenge

6. Here’s Route 80 in the Nevada Desert.

7. Here’s the Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona.

8. Here’s Versailles.

9. Here’s Red Square.

If you want to explore for yourself, it’s all here.