Rich --
>> My eureka was a bit premature. After more burn in time and more reads and writes it is still not right ....
Bummer!! I had hoped that you got it. You might try a non-CMOS 8255? I found that they worked better than the "C" variety.
I'm going to be working on building up my second PCB the way you suggested, and see what happens with that in my setup.
When you have the time, I'd like to see your ROM/CBIOS code.
Roger