CD-RW Reverse Compatibility

[Mazer]

I was thinking today about how neat my dad's 12 year old CD player is. Besides holding six discs at a time it also plays back CD-RW's. That seems strange to me since my dad got that thing long before CD-RW's were invented. How come they play on old CD players but not on new ones?

I bought my car CD player specifically because it advertised that it plays CD-RW's. How does it differ from the boom box in my room that doesn't play CD-RW's? I don't know, maybe my dad's CD player has a brighter laser or an extra sensative pickup that enables it to play CD-RW's. If that's the difference why doesn't my DVD player play CD-RW's? DVD players have very bright lasers and very sensative pickups to read the dense info on a DVD, it should be able to read a CD-RW.

Here's my consipiracy theory. Back when CD-RW was invented the scientists and engineers working on the project originally intended to make CD-RW's backwards compatible with old CD players because that's what they did with CD-R's. But their employers, the big CD player manufacturers like Sony and Phillips, decided to make two kinds of players: the new kind that can't play CD-RW's and cost the same price, and the old kind with a higher price tag and a spiffy new label that says "CD-RW Compatible."

I don't have a lot of evidence to support this claim, most of the CD players I have are pretty new except for my dad's player. Does anyone else have a CD player that's more than 10 years old? Try a CD-RW in there and see if it works. I'd like to know what you discover.