If your going to get one locally you may want to check and see about a TR guy in your area that burns chips and can work with you one on one.
As far as the Joe Lubrandt (JL) chip, he does really good work. Especially for our cars. I would consider my JL chip the best chip that I have.
As far as the Hypertech. I know of one guy here a few years back that had a mostly stock '85, might have had a few go fast mods from the hotair recipe (i.e. K&N, blocked TB coolant lines) and a Hypertech chip who ran a 14.5 et.