This little weird idea sprung in my head a decade ago, while playing with samples of SPI and I²C memories. I figured that the pull-up of the parallel printer port could work well for a I²C memory dongle with 8×64KB chips.

I went the SPI route and that's what I use today: that's 4 wires instead of 2 but speed and capacity have increased dramatically. They cost $1/pc or less if you search well (www.ebay.com/itm/252015791482) which amounts to 0.06$/MB or 60$/GB, it's not comparable to USB sticks or SSDs but it's much easier to hack.

Experience with the #SPI Flasher has proved that my programming algorithm works well so it will be interesting to extend it to N simultaneous bits (why limit to 8 bits when I work with a 16-bits CPU ?)

Fine control and extension can be controlled by an embedded 74HC595 (or more). For example, if more than one bank of SPI chip exists, a 2nd 595 will select which chips are selected. The reset pin can select all the chips in one cycle. SPI memories don't have an "/output enable" pin, only a "/chip enable" pin, and the 595 and 273 reset to 0, which is not handy if we want to use the data bus in both directions. More on this later...