Getting my old 3d printer working

[bibbler]

I have a Flashforge Creator Dual, made of wood - must be getting on for 10 years old.I'm trying to get it up and running again, but hitting the problems that come with old hardware:

1. The latest FF software doesn't seem to support my printer. What should I do?

2. I'd like to upgrade the firmware, but googling has given me some horror stories. Talk of sailfish and upgrading to that, but breaking it etc. Again, what's my best option here?

3. This question might be made pointless by answers to 1 & 2, but is there another way of taking an STL file and turning it into an x3g (I think) file that will working with the printer?