a.) is there any special reason you wish to keep 1.01? (if not you shoudl update to 1.03.)
b.) You have Shipedit 2.0102? Cause it used to work fine when I was playing it. (long ago I am afraid)
c.) Prestige... Sorry don't remember...
I seem to remember that starting prestige could be changed... but I might be remembering SFC2 instead.
d.) sorry to hear you have XP problem, what kind?