In 1976, I worked for Teccor in Euless, Texas, and they had an Imsai 8080 hooked to a teletype so programs could be entered via a keyboard and saved to paper tape reels. I think that was the format used to distribute Gates’ BASIC program.
Yeah, that was the standard gig back then.
My fingers got sore punching those TTY keys!!
Then we got VT100s and it was waaaay easier and fun...