Star Wars comes home: The history of the 1977 film on VHS and Beta

Star Wars at home: the original US
VHS version from 1982

The history of Star Wars on home entertainment formats is long and complicated, but for a long time it could be boiled down to one simple rule:

Every time you bought the film in what you confidently believed to be the ultimate, definitive edition, Lucasfilm would release another one.

That was the rule of thumb for a long time, but later it became clear that a rider had been added, which was this:

While George Lucas was happy to release all kinds of enhanced deluxe versions of the film, he was never again going to release the movie as seen by the original audiences in 1977-78.

Looking back at Star Wars Weekly – issue 6

Warriors of the Death Star: Star Wars Weekly 
cover by Howard Chaykin

Episode Nothing is back after a lengthy gap. My apologies.

I'll return to discussing the film itself soon, but today, another look at the Marvel comic strip adaptation, as we in Britain experienced it in Star Wars Weekly.

Star Wars comes home: the Super 8 releases from Ken Films

The 200ft black and white silent Star Wars on Super 8 from Ken Films

The story of Star Wars on home video really begins with its release on VHS and Betamax in May 1982. But long before then, there were some lucky people who were able to relive the Star Wars experience at home.  They were the people with Super 8 movie projectors.