Well, it seems that Lucasfilm has heard the cries of elder nostalgic Star Wars fans everywhere and responded accordingly. Either that or this was their intention all along as yet another way to use the Dark Side of the Force and levitate cash from pockets.
Regardless, the original unaltered, un-enhanced Star Wars movies will be coming to DVD this September (for a limited time, like those old Burger King glasses!). Officially: In response to overwhelming demand, Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will release attractively priced individual two-disc releases of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Each release includes the 2004 digitally remastered version of the movie, as well as the original theatrical edition of the film. That means you’ll be able to enjoy Star Wars as it first appeared in 1977, Empire in 1980, and Jedi in 1983.
It’ll be interesting to see if I can enjoy the analog FX of the first movies now without weird head-jinking and all kinds of distracting crap running around Mos Eisley. But the real challenge will be preventing my prequel hatred from leaking into the experience — when Vader lines up Luke in the Death Star trench, I know I’ll be expecting him to say "The Force is strong with this one. He must have, like, a really high concentration of midichlorians."
But at least now the Star Wars "purists" can shift the focus of their complaints to the infinity of dispensable novels, comics and upcoming TV series.