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Neither do the computers I'm working with have Ethernet or USB.

16-bit NICs are $10 apiece, and likely free for the asking from almost any
office's dead PC junk heap.

Besides, there's always the fun of doing it, and that much time
difference should even "pay" for the programming effort.

Seems to me your time would be better spent on things with lasting value.

Linux is free. You can boot directly off the CD image. CD drives are less
than $20 new; likely free for the asking from the dead PC junk heap. Any
pre-built kernel less than 5 years old will work with most NICs, PC
filesystems, and CD drives. Total time and cost can be less than the kW-hrs
you already burned musing about parallel port transfers.