Not mad - funny, I still have some 68HC711 windowed parts from the early-mid '90s. Oops, dating myself there.
If you assume the transistors are bipolar, then you can use a multimeter with 'diode' function to determine PNP or NPN. Some multi-meters actually have transistor functions on them. Of course, once you determine PNP or NPN, they won't really be all that good except for experimenting as low voltage switches. Just too many other characteristics that you'd need to know to use them effectively.
In the old days we used to have test equipment that you could stick a transistor in and it would show you the characteristics of the device.
I doubt any still exist, so I would suggest you set up a simple amplifier circuit, one for NPN and one for PNP and plug them in a low voltage test rig to see which one works.
From there you can adjust the amplifier gain and current drive capabilities.
If you have an application for them, use the test rig to see if they would work, then go from their.
It is probably not worth investing a whole lot of time as you can buy these things for pennies.
There should still be multi-meters available that have the ability to do checks and get Beta for them. I know my Craftsman meter does and it's about 13+ years old. But DAB is right, I remember using a transistor "checkers" a few years ago. Jerri Ellesworth shows one in one of her videos when she creates a cat's wisker based transistor.
I love it, stick the leads on almost anything, gives you the part type, gain and more. I pull it out any time I want to test or identify a part, match transistors, check their gain or threshold.
