I found the exact chip on Digikey ... It's about $7 ... So you're saying if I wanted to get one, I'd have to get an EPROM coder or something like that just to get the code in there, and even then it might not work.

Do you think the VFD is still good? Maybe I could buy a whole serial controller from Matrix Orbital and just solder it onto the old VFD?

I wonder how much those boards are ... It's possible they make up the bulk of the price I guess.

Greg