I too am doing a senior project using the 8052. I've found some great dev. tools from www.keil.com
they have a simulator that will simulate your code and you can watch all the indvdual registers change and the output port values. They'll mail you a free demo cd that willsupport 2k of code, which should easily be anough for your project. I highly reommend it.
it will also compile for you a hex file too.
Peace
~William