Reddit user surprised when 1960s computer panel emerged from collapsed family garage

Recently, a Reddit user discovered a rare RCA Spectra 70/35 computer control panel from 1966 in their family’s old collapsed garage, posting photos of the pre-moon landing mainframe component to the “retrobattlestations” subreddit that celebrates vintage computers. After cleaning the panel and fixing most keyswitches, the original poster noted that actually running it would require “1,500lbs of mainframe”—the rest of the computer system that’s missing.
↫ Benj Edwards at Ars Technica

Apparently, no photos of this panel existed online, and it may be one of the few – if only – ‘surviving’ example of such a panel. Of course, it’s effectively useless without all of the other chunks that make up the entire Spectra mainframe, but it’s still an interesting find. The person who found it intends to turn it into what is essentially a piece of home decor, but maybe we’ll get lucky and someone else out there who has been collecting parts and pieces to assemble a working RCA Spectra 70/35 can do something more productive with it.