One of the earliest attempts to map the Falcon's interior space was a two-page floorplan included in The Star Wars Sourcebook, published in 1987 by West End Games. Based on set blueprints with a generous amount of interpretation and interpolation, the design became the foundation for most YT-1300 freighters for years in the very first Star Wars roleplaying game. But in time, it became apparent that these plans did not hold up to scrutiny or compatibility with the rest of the expanded universe. One particular bone of contention was the placement of its escape pods. This early floorplan posited that the two capsule-like extremities at the Falcon's "hips" were escape pods. This did not jibe with the Star Wars radio drama, which had several escape pods launch from the Falcon as it approached the Death Star, a scene based upon the Imperial officer's remark that several of the Falcon's pods had been jettisoned. The floorplan left no room for extra pods.
Author and artist Shane Johnston took another pass on the Falcon's interior in the Starlog Star Wars Technical Journal published in 1993. Among his biggest changes was the creation of an array of escape pods in the rear of the craft, turning the side capsules into cargo hatches, and adding more cargo holds.
The Falcon's interior continued its evolution through 1997. A cut-away poster illustration from SciPubTech and an expansive exploded view by Hans Jenssen in DK Books' Star Wars: Incredible Cross Section came very close to defining the Falcon, but both featured a number of cheats and tricks to fit it all in, given that there were still fundamental scale issues with the Falcon's size. Many of these headaches were alleviated by expanding the Falcon to over 100 feet, at the recommendation of Reiff and Trevas.
The blueprint artists consulted all the various interiors that had come before, from West End Games and Wizards of the Coast maps, to a 3-D walkthrough in the Behind The Magic CD-ROM, to physical props like the Revell cutaway model, the Code 3 die-cast model, and the Attackus diorama.
