Codename: Robotech is an animated pilot

Television pilot

A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...

 that preceded the original 1985 Robotech television series

Robotech (TV series)

Robotech is an 85-episode adaptation of three different anime television series made between 1982-1984 in Japan, the adaptation was aired in 1985. Within the combined and edited story, Robotechnology refers to the scientific advances discovered in an alien starship that crashed on a South Pacific...

. It is set within the events of the First Robotech War.

Broadcast

The 73-minute pilot was a greatly extended version of Gloval's Report, the fourteenth television episode that summarizes the beginning of the series. It was aired on some television stations before the broadcast of the series in 1985.

Home video release

Codename: Robotech was included on DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 as an extra with the first volume of the Robotech Legacy Collection and the complete Protoculture Collection, from ADV Films. The disc includes the option of audio commentary

Audio commentary

On disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...

 by producer Carl Macek

Carl Macek

Carl F. Macek was an American writer and controversial anime pioneer and producer of the 1980s and 1990s.-Robotech and Harmony Gold USA:...

 and was also released in Australia by Madman Entertainment

Madman Entertainment

Madman Entertainment is an Australian company that distributes international films as well as Japanese anime and manga in Australia and New Zealand. The company is owned by Funtastic Limited and is one of the major entertainment companies in Australia. It employs 130 people and has an annual...

.