The black blob is an IC, but what purpose it serves I don't know. You may be able to make up an adapter to program the EPROM in circuit but the blob IC may interfere with it.
It's actually quite hard to accidentally erase an EPROM, even in direct tropical sun it takes hours. The black stickers are more to prevent light from interfering with operation, if you shine a bright light on an EPROM while the circuit is operating it will malfunction.