You can read our original coverage of the A New Hope menu design here.

On September 12, fans will finally be able to see the original unaltered Star Wars trilogy on DVD, including the saga's very first sequel, The Empire Strikes Back. The theatrical versions will only be available as bonus discs bundled with the original trilogy DVD singles being released on September 12, for a limited time only.

To open The Empire Strikes Back bonus DVD, New Wave's menu designers opted to go with an animated version of Tom Jung's classic Style "B" poster artwork, which was originally designed in 1980 to convey the action elements of the film (old-school fans might remember the previous Style "A" by Roger Kastel evoked a more romantic tone, a la Gone With The Wind).

Paul Schneider, Senior Producer for the bonus DVD menus, was inspired by the vast array of domestic and international poster campaigns from the original trilogy's past. "There was so much terrific poster art created for the original releases of these films, and our design team had a great time 'revisiting it,' and figuring out what images might work best for certain menus. The front menus each have a short motion intro, so we made sure that we picked a poster for each Main Menu that would lend itself to a brief but high-impact animation."

The Main Menu opens with animated artwork of snowspeeders flying around an AT-AT's legs, pulling out over an army of running stormtroopers until all the elements of the classic Style "B" composition fall into place.

In addition to the stunning animations, the original 2D artwork elements seem to take on an added third dimension -- a technique New Wave became well versed in while working on the Episode III bonus menus. "Nearly all of the environments you see on those [Episode III] Disc 2 menus (all but two, in fact) were created from stills, if you can believe that," says Schneider. "We did nearly all the 3D and 2D motion you see -- the elaborate opening battle scene, etc. -- right here at New Wave from these hi-def stills taken directly from the film."

Like the A New Hope bonus DVD menus, the Empire versions sport the classic slant logo from the original ad campaigns, a style which has been out of circulation for more than a decade. Fans will also enjoy the throwback poster images used for the additional menus, which include the Vader helmet teaser art for Chapters, an uncommon early German poster graphic for Options, and Kastel's classic "Gone With The Wind" Style "A" for the computer launch page.

When pressed to reveal his favorite menu from the multiple designs devised for the original trilogy bonus discs, Schneider is quick to choose. "I like 'em all, but I'd have to say The Empire Strikes Back intro with the stormtroopers and AT-AT walkers moving through the poster art is pretty cool."

Look for Part III in next week's coverage of the Return of the Jedi DVD.