Hi Mechy, et al.
He is right, without the code and a way to program them,its hopeless. It's sometimes possible to copy the old pals if the protection bit isn't blown.
Since it lacks any internal registers, the programming of the 16L8 is relatively easy to figure out with a logic analyser if the protection fuse is blown.
Still means he will need a working unit, not to mention the programming hardware.
Red.