I've done quite a bit of research on this. If you want an inexpensive programmer that will do the old stuff (think: 2716 eproms found in early 80's games) you're gonna need something that's serial based, with external power. Most of the programmers from the era run on Dos or Win98 at the latest. You'll need a an older PC with an ISA slot, or at the least a Serial port.
Are there machines out there today that will run on newer operating systems and use USB? Yes, but they're either not compatible with the older chips, or if they ARE compatible with the older chips, they're very expensive. The Willems programmers you find on feeBay are USB based, but they just don't have enough 'oomph' to program the older stuff. I've tried them. They don't program anything that needs 21 or 25 volts.
Because the Needhams / Logical Devices programmers are old, most times you can get a good price on them from sellers who don't care about them or need them. I picked up my Needhams emp10 for under $30 shipped and it was NIB. The stocking invoice from 2002 was still in the box. I think it was one of the last years that Needhams supported the device, so I probably got one of the last models made.
I have a NIB Shooter programmer available too, so if there's someone interested, I can get you a relatively good price on that unit.
I know some of you complain about having to use an older OS or DOS to interface with these devices, but really, if you want to program older hardware, you need to speak the language of the older hardware.