Long before CGI basically replaced all sorts of model-based visual effects, some work was still done with computers. /Film has an article and video about the making of the original computer effects used in Star Wars – and we aren’t talking about what George Lucas did with the “Special Edition”. Larry Cuba shows how he created the computer-generated image of the Death Star and the trench run, including real-time manipulation (very hard to do back then, even for the simplistic graphics), and using pictures of models and a digitizing pen.