They have always been known a FPC ribbons. Not ribbon cable. Ribbon cable is completely different and always has been too.
This is ribbon cable:
View attachment 245194
Later ribbon was called IDC where insulation displacement connectors were fitted to each end, but the cable itself, is ribbon.
Sometimes the FPCs are vapor deposited and printed, other times etched, other times pressed and they often have some active and/or passives on the FPC and they are true flexible printed circuits. It was first started in the 1980s with companies like Matsushita experimenting with super thin and flexible printed (yes printed) circuits with printed resistors along with early SMD devices and passives.
The miniaturization race in walkmans and car audio, drove flexible printed circuits, along with video cameras/still cameras. Just about every CD player has FPCs connecting the laser head/focus assembly to the main board or the mech PCB.
@Doodski would have seen a million of them, just as I have. Often the LD power adjustment pot and CC active circuit is on the FPC.