Nintendo had security screws on their cartridges for the NES, so that goes back to the mid-1980s. I'm sure there were other products and devices that did the sa

Nintendo had security screws on their cartridges for the NES, so that goes back to the mid-1980s. I'm sure there were other products and devices that did the same (probably in the industrial and commercial arenas), but for the general US consumer, security screws basically made their appearance with the home video game console "revolution" (post-Atari 2600).