This week in 1982, Star Wars finally arrived on Home Video

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Forty-three years ago this month in June 1982, Episode IV A New Hope finally arrived on Home Video, a time that saw the then recently renamed 1977 original arrive in a new format designed to bring the galaxy to what just 5 million US based video recorder owners. Released to be rented rather than sold, the video broke all manner of records, changing the landscape just as it had half a decade before when it revolutionised cinema, but there’s plenty about this story you probably don’t know.

Mark Newbold
Mark Newbold
Exploring the galaxy since 1978, Mark wrote his first fan fiction in 1981 and been a presence online since his first webpage Fanta War in 1996. He's contributed to Star Wars Insider (since '06) and Starburst Magazine (since '16) as well as ILM.com, SkywalkerSound.com, StarWars.com, Star Wars Encyclopedia, Build The Millennium Falcon, Geeky Monkey, TV Film Memorabilia, Model and Collectors Mart, Star Trek magazine and StarTrek.com. He is a four-time Star Wars Celebration Stage host, the only podcaster to have appeared on every Celebration podcast stage since the stage began in 2015, the Daily Content Manager of Fantha Tracks and the co-host of Making Tracks, Canon Fodder and Start Your Engines on Fantha Tracks Radio.
- Advertisement -
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Forty-three years ago this month in June 1982, Episode IV A New Hope finally arrived on Home Video, a time that saw the then recently renamed 1977 original arrive in a new format designed to bring the galaxy to what just 5 million US based video recorder owners. Released to be rented rather than sold, the video broke all manner of records, changing the landscape just as it had half a decade before when it revolutionised cinema, but there’s plenty about this story you probably don’t know.

Mark Newbold
Mark Newbold
Exploring the galaxy since 1978, Mark wrote his first fan fiction in 1981 and been a presence online since his first webpage Fanta War in 1996. He's contributed to Star Wars Insider (since '06) and Starburst Magazine (since '16) as well as ILM.com, SkywalkerSound.com, StarWars.com, Star Wars Encyclopedia, Build The Millennium Falcon, Geeky Monkey, TV Film Memorabilia, Model and Collectors Mart, Star Trek magazine and StarTrek.com. He is a four-time Star Wars Celebration Stage host, the only podcaster to have appeared on every Celebration podcast stage since the stage began in 2015, the Daily Content Manager of Fantha Tracks and the co-host of Making Tracks, Canon Fodder and Start Your Engines on Fantha Tracks Radio.
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