by the fans for the fans

I was watching Episode 20 "Paradise Lost" of the macross saga and saw something I didn't expect. When Bron, Rico and Konda were eating their last meal on the SDF1 they put a Minmei song on the Radio. The radio had a tape deck and another spot that said CD on it. I didn't think CD players were around back then (early 80's) I don't recall seeing CD until the late 80's early 90's...the Japanese are so advanced

Actually, CD players were around back then.

The technology that makes compact discs possible was first patented in 1965. Philips and Sony independently started to experiment with optical digital audio discs in 1977 and 1975 respectively. The technology really didn't take off until 1979, when Sony and Philips joined forces and came up with the Red Book standard that is still used on audio CDs today.

The first album to be released on CD was Billy Joel's "52nd Street", which came out alongside sony's CDP-101 CD player on October 1, 1982, two days before the airing of the first episode of Super Dimension Fortress Macross. Episode 20 didn't air until March of 1983, by which time CD players and compact disc technology would've been on the market in Japan for six months.

And back then I thought lazer discs were cool.