I'm working on several projects based on the MC68000. To make my life easier (HA!) I am separating everything into multiple development boards. To keep with the retro look and feel, I'm using as close to 100% DIP packages as possible.
Right now I'm working on the processor board. I have all of the buses broken out to female headers via 74LVC245's. No matter how I orient the processor or transceivers, the ratsnest is just a total twisted mess. And I'm giving quite a bit of space between components! Some of the truly densely populated boards of old have chips so close you'd think the pins would short out! I've tried rotating and moving the transceivers and CPU, but all that does is move the twisted mess.
How do I tackle this? I'm going 4 layers, just because of this issue, but in reality, 2 layers should suffice. I can reorder the nets so that they line up better with the transceivers coming from the CPU, only that twists them between the transceivers and headers. I could make the bus out of order at the headers, but that complicates development and ensures nasty errors when wiring between development boards.
How was this done efficiently back in the day?