Finally sat down last weekend and got everything laid out on the breadboard and working 100%.
Ended up using two minis, they take up less board space than I would take up using two sockets/controllers/crystals/etc. It's also easy to reprogram in-situ with an ftdi breakout cable and they have their own reset switches. The one on the right handles VSS via a TIP120 transistor and the one on the left handles the distributor signals via the MAX235 chip. The MAX235 is a little expensive (Maxim will send you a free two piece sample though) but it has five level converters and internal caps so it makes a nice clean install.
The rest of the board looks the same for now:
That was my first attempt at using a perfboard so don't judge too much
Works well so far but it's a little clunky since it's a big mess spread out over two boards. Spent the bulk of last weekend just using it, all I really wanted was to pick apart the serial packets coming from my Demon. I'm going through and laying everything out in Eagle now. I may or may not do anything with it but I want to at least get it all documented.