I'm at a point with a design where I cannot find any SPI, I2C, or indeed any other serial Programmable Interval Timers and I can't even get my hands on SMD 8253

I'm at a point with a design where I cannot find any SPI, I2C, or indeed any other serial Programmable Interval Timers and I can't even get my hands on SMD 8253s, so I'm considering just using some sort of microcontroller instead.