- Raw GPU -Design showed random errors when the system tried memory writes
- Inapgpu fought with environmental noise from simple USB cables
- A 12MHz counts over clocked to 20 MHz caused constant instability
An unclear project on GitHub shows how a hardware hobbyist tried to construct what he called “the other world’s worst video card,” a text mode graphics card that only uses TTL ports.
As he worked under the handle Leoneq, he released the “Inapgpu” patch to document his experiment.
His goal was to surpass Ben Eater’s “World’s Worst Video Card” by doing something even less practical.
A minimal design that still exceeded real VGA limits
Despite deliberate use of raw methods, he could not reduce output during a basic VGA solution.
The project specifications show VGA output of 800 x 600 (actually SVGA) @60Hz, with an available resolution of 400 x 300 in monochrome.
The hardware was built from 21 integrated circuits, including counters, Nand Gates and an EPROM that worked with a small SRAM.
By treating a 1-Mbit EPROM as a 1-bit memory, Leoneq could load up to four character sets of 255 characters each.
However, the use of tri-state buffers and a basic counting arrangement led to visual artifacts and poor stability.
Even when using a low capacity memory and avoiding a microcontroller, the design still couldn’t deteriorate to anything under VGA.
Leoneq admitted that the assembly process was awkward and stood at 0.12 mm wire on a protoboard rather than a printed circuit card.
He described the result as terrible and warned others to “use FPGA instead” to avoid similar frustrations.
The Hsync hour was powered by a 12-bit count assessed to only 12MHz at 15V, yet he pushed it to 20MHz to double bone Eater’s Pixel Clock.
He only compared “them” of counter -outlings instead of full numbers, a shortcut that introduced repeated signals without breaking the screen.
The unconventional approach kept the map functional, but it also revealed timing errors and unstable output.
This was never a viable graphics card because image glitches took place every time it wrote to memory as it couldn’t write and read at the same time.
Environmental clothing, even from a nearby USB cable, also distorted the display.
In addition, the characters lacked clarity due to rum power and reading time limits, while unexplained lines appeared in the background.
Leoneq labeled the picture openly as ugly and described the whole effort as a “great waste of time.”
Although the project demonstrated that a raw collection of TTL gates could generate a useful VGA signal, it also shows why modern designers prefer programmable logic as FPGAs.
Leoneq’s depot supplies conversion tools and test code to Arduino Mega, but the effort seems more like a technical joke than a practical product.
