shmups.system11.org

Once you get it, you can create a save state at the character selection screen to bypass the long startup + Konami code. If you make it somewhat shortly before timeout, you can have convenient selection of all 4 types (ABC with timeout). I think you can also unlock the ships with cheat.dat, but there's no reason to use that over the code.

Regarding the rate of fire on the Saturn, I'm confused as to which Hz maps to the corresponding Shot 1 through 8?

30hz is normally the fastest rate on a 60 hz game due to the fact that anything faster will not be read as an ON/OFF cycle an won't function. From there possible rates go down in factors of 60. So this would make the most sense:

Shot power = hz

8 = 30hz
7 = 20hz
6 = 15hz
5 = 12hz
4 = 10hz
3 = 6hz
2 = 5hz
1 = 4hz

Of course I'm basing this off common sense, not knowledge of how the game is programmed so this could be off. But for all intents and purposes this should give a good idea of the equivalent rates.