On September 12, the original theatrical version of The Empire Strikes Back will be available on DVD, bundled as a bonus disc to the 2004 Special Edition of the movie, which will be available for the first time ever as an individual movie DVD. This limited time release will be the only DVD release of the unaltered theatrical films.

Sharp-eyed fans can easily rattle off the most significant changes to the evolving film, but now with the 1980 incarnation preserved on DVD, they'll be able to more easily witness and compare the differences between the earliest and latest editions of the fan-favorite Empire.

To better prepare yourself as the ultimate authority of the changes, starwars.com presents this shot-by-shot guide to the visual differences between the 1980 film and the 2004 DVD. This guide does not address any changes to audio mixes, but it does a pretty thorough sweep of the visual updates. Sure, you know about the new wampa and the added windows in Cloud City, but did you notice the compositing improvements in the snow battle, or the correction of reversed rank badges on Imperial officers? Test your knowledge and sharp eyes by starting the tour here.

A Note About Garbage Mattes: About a dozen or so improvements cited in this visual guide refer to improvements of garbage matte artifacts which may be difficult to spot. A garbage matte is a visual effects rotoscoping technique used to isolate models against a bluescreen. An effects artist defines a box-like area around the image of the model to help in compositing. The limitations of photochemical compositing often resulted in tell-tale "artifacting," visible remnants of the garbage matte around the model that appear as faint, animated boxes. These limitations were compounded when the film was first transferred to video, which did not reproduce the inky blackness of space backgrounds with true fidelity. As a result, many fans who grew up with Empire on VHS had noticed the strange off-black boxes surrounding TIE fighters and other ships in many shots throughout Episode V. The 1997 Special Edition and the 2004 DVD cleaned up a significant number of these shots either through recompositing of elements digitally or by better reproducing the darkness of space around the models. If you can't quite see the boxes in the examples cited, try turning up the contrast on your monitor. Or, if you import the image into a photo-editing program and manipulate the contrast there, they become quite apparent, as the example here proves.

September 12 also marks the release of LucasArts' LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, the video game that combines the magic of Star Wars with the fun of LEGO. Click here for more information. Also, the Star Wars Road Trip is well underway, with Wicket, Darth Vader and Chewbacca hitting the road to travel to a dozen cities across the U.S. to celebrate these releases. Is your city on the list? Check out this story here, and find out how you can win a trip to Celebration IV by sending us your photos!