One of my favorite projects is my multi-year 6502 breadboard computer. Built using individual chips, resistors, capacitors and more, I made a functioning computer with a 1Mhz CPU, functioning graphics card, and IO through the PS2 interface
Although quite finicky and subject to electrical disturbance, my breadboard computer taught me the ins and outs of computer electronics on a level I could have never learned from a text book or video.
I learned to read circuit diagrams, the function of pullup resistors, how to make analog timing circuitry, and so much more about computers.
Test of the ps2 interface
My graphics card displaying a photo of my fish
Early iteration where the cpu was calculating the mathematical constant pi using the Gregory–Leibniz series
Here is some of my 6502 Assembly Code
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Using Gregory Leibniz Series, which is an alternating summation of odd numbers, my computer calculated then displayed PI
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Playing against itself, this code is a pong game using my own rudimentary graphics engine.
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Once the serial input is transformed into parallel data input for the processor using circuitry and a capacitor, this code converts the signal into an output on the lcd screen.