Architectural/dimensional shingles
 

I'm buying a home that has dimensional shingles on it now, the home was built in 1979. my question is could this be the original roof or did dimensional shingles come out at a later date?

It would be amazing if it were the original roof! Seen some asphalt roofs hit 30 years but it's very very rare.

As far as when laminates hit the market want to say GAF Timberline 1969. It's rare to find a Timberline shingle on a roof past 20 years.

Largely unlikely in this case.

Probably the first re-roof and hopefully they stripped the old layer.

30 years is like finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow...a mythical tale in my world but I have heard of it.

Any roofer, home inspector, builder should be able to just look at them and tell you about how old and in what condition there in.
What does the seller say about them?