Before the PICstart I wired up the cicruit on their app note for which you could use the printer port of a PC to bit bang. I think I had a program in BASIC which did the programming.
With the PICstart you had to occationally upgrade the firmware when new parts came out. If you had an extra part like the one on the board, you could program new firmware with the PICstart itself, then swap parts.
I finally sold my PICstart on eBay a couple years ago. I think I still have one of those round ICE programmers. I do AVR now. Never got a PICkit.
I never knew that about basic programming, but it makes sense. Something along those line could have been on their BBS.
They used to regularly send updated firmware chips and for free.
I looked into ebaying that one in the pic, but they do not command much price-wise and it would be too much of a headache to ship...IOW, I tossed it. I am ok with doing that, but I did save the power supply and the 16C64 that came with it. Also, I know that I have another one around here somewhere and that is the one that I kept getting updates for. I think the one pictured was given to me, I can't remember for sure.
You do AVR now....so, you are back with Microchip