Star Wars Purist said:

Interesting. Are there any discs out there simply of "scans" of the original films (as in film films) for each movie? Even if they're of terrible quality, that would interest me greatly.

Yes - but it's not quite that simple.

Historically, we know about two scans of 35mm prints of Star Wars that have been transferred to VHS bootlegs - one is full frame and the other widescreen. DVD transfers from both are 'out there'.

There is also the Puggo Grande project, which is a scan of a 16mm print of Star Wars direct to DVD. The follow-up project for Empire, 'Puggo Strikes Back', is not yet available.

Then there's Video Collector's "Theatre Performance" bootlegs of ESB and ROTJ. These are "cams" of the original films rather than telecine scans, and again have been through an intermediate VHS stage.