It was common to draw a diagram with the physical layout you ... Institute got a patent in 1960 for a spring-loaded solderless breadboard. Innovative, but not quite how we know them today.

Breadboard is good to but I think you would have to move to a single sided approach with larger 88 / 100 pin chips. I have seen 88 pin PLCC sockets but never a 100 pin. QFP44 is easy to solder (0 ...