thanks for taking an interest in my first C game project from 30 years ago.
You are correct in describing the entire game as an alpha-gameplay experiment that wasn't a 100% success, as i mention in the blog.
as for cheating, just select an 'easier' galactic map setup:medium map, more planets, uncheck advanced aliens. spend all your time collecting artifacts from moons for the first half hour of game play. launch 20 fleets to accomplish this. do not go to war with more than a couple aliens at a time...and use espionage. lots of espionage and propaganda to collapse the large enemy empires!
This game is super hard. I have beat this game many times, but then again i designed it ... :)