Perhaps not really similar, but at my previous employer, I got stuck with making a PMC (PCI Mezzanine Connection) video card, based on a then-popular 3D graphics controller chip. This video card was going onto on of our VME CPU boards, and the whole lot was being installed on some helicopter or some such, which was being upgraded.

The customer wanted monochrome RS-343 output so it could talk to the helicopter's display. That was stupid enough.

Then I found out that they were also replacing the displays with standard LCDs, and they were putting RS-343-to-whatever converters on the lines feeding the displays!

I suggested that they just take the DVI output from the video controller chip, connect that to the display, and be done with it. But no -- I was told that it was "too difficult" for the wiring to be replaced.

It was possibly the stupidest thing I've ever worked on.

-a