I've been playing "Star Fleet I: The War Begins!" (version 2.1) quite extensively over the course of the past few months. I've managed to make it to "Vice Admiral" rank (level 9). Ranks 1-6 were a breeze, rank 7 was a bit difficult, and rank 8 was difficult but winnable.

Rank 9 seems to be impossible! I've been stuck on the first mission of rank 9 for ages now (you need to win 5 missions with a required efficiency rating/percentage per mission to advance to the next rank in the game). I've played numerous missions at rank 9, and even a few at rank 10 (by temporarily "promoting" myself using the game's built in "Personnel Manager" feature), but those two ranks seem to be almost unwinnable.

The Krellans almost ALWAYS seem to move when I take a shot (using phasors OR torpedoes), yet ALWAYS seem to hit me regardless if I move or not. The Zaldrons are the MOST ANNOYING enemies of all. They are always cloaked so that you have NO idea of where they are, yet they seem to ALWAYS know what quadrant of space that you're in... following you around the galaxy like a dog on a leash! They randomly and spastically pop in and out of your current sector at will, screwing up any strategy that you may have planned, as well as your shield power configuration strategies.

Of course, if you attempt to start a battle in a sector with 3 or more enemies (which is a MUST in order to win the mission with the required efficiency rating/percentage within the allotted time frame), they knock down your shield power (and total power) extremely quickly. And, too many trips back to the SINGLE starbase that you have in ranks 9 and 10 costs you even MORE mission time/days resulting in running out of time to complete the mission. Not to mention, the difficulty of actually LOCATING the SINGLE starbase at those rank levels.

Starting a mission (and being resupplied at the single starbase) at ranks 9 and 10 with the game's default of only a total of 5000 energy points seems to be unwinnable.

Hence, I finally decided to break down and utilize Captain James T. Kirk's "Kobayashi Maru" Star Fleet training scenario tactics... CHEAT! I REALLY didn't want to do this (as in my NOT so humble opinion KIRK IS A CHEATER!), but it's the ONLY way to make the game enjoyable for rank 9 and 10 missions in order to normally advance your rank. Yeah, I could go ahead and just keep playing rank 7 missions... but DAMMIT JIM, I want to get PROMOTED (I feel like Ensign Harry Kim in Star Trek: Voyager 🤣)!

So, without further adieu, a hex edit cheat for version 2.1 of the game that changes the starship new mission energy from 5000 to 9999, and the starbase resupply energy from 5000 to 9999. Note that you will need a hex editor, know how to use it, and the hex offsets listed below are ONLY for version 2.1 of the game (release date August 18, 1986). Also note that I didn't search for the hex offsets for the "Small Memory" version of the game (which includes the file "OVS.EXE"), ONLY the hex offsets for the "Large Memory" version of the game (the files "SFI.EXE" and "OVC.EXE").

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Star Fleet I: The War Begins! v2.1 Energy Cheat
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For use with version 2.1, release date August 18 1986.

Changes the starship new mission energy from 5000 to 9999, and the starbase resupply energy from 5000 to 9999.

Starship New Mission Energy
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Filename: SFI.EXE
Filesize: 51,584 bytes
Hex Offset (0 Based): 5B43
Hex Value (Byte Swapped): Change 8813 to 0F27

Starbase Resupply Energy
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Filename: OVC.EXE
Filesize: 31,360 bytes
Hex Offset (0 Based): 3235
Hex Value (Byte Swapped): Change 8813 to 0F27

ENJOY and HAVE FUN!
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Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel
http://www.richnagel.net
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Anyhow, with the new mission and resupply energy levels set to 9999, the game STILL requires a LOT of strategy at ranks 9 and 10, but AT LEAST it's WINNABLE. I'm SURE that ranks 1-7 will probably be WAY too easy with these increased energy levels, so you probably will not want to use this cheat for games at those ranks.