Hi there! I'm new to FDD emulation and I've been wanting to get an HxC for awhile now to use with my PC-9821 Ce2 and I know that the HxC's should be able to utilize a program that can convert disk images (such as .d88 in the case of PC-88 and PC-98) to a format that the HxC can understand. The problem is that HxC devices are rather expensive to get, and then you get into the shipping costs as well...

I've had my eye on Gotek for awhile and I just recently learned that Jean was allowing these Gotek devices to run official HxC firmware, provided you pay for a license (which I think is around $10). I see that you are selling a package here on eBay that is all ready to go, Gotek + HxC, and I'm very interested in purchasing one from you but I wanted to know a little more first since you seemed the most knowledgeable of all the other Gotek sellers on eBay.

1. With the HxC firmware, should these act pretty much identically to a real HxC device? Meaning there's nothing really different hardware-wise between the two?

2. Given the instructions that a friend of mine (who uses a HxC Slim Rev. F model on his PC-98 setup shared some info regarding how his is setup to work, having to do with the position of the Floppy cable and certain dip switches. He said to me:

Floppy cable should be inserted tab-down, with the red line on the right near the dipswitches on the HxC.

Dipswitches: 1,6 ON (flat cable), 4,7 ON (twist cable)

This Japanese blog explains it better, with pictures: http://ssklab.kinet.ne.jp/comp/pc98/pc98-h007

Do these Gotek FDD emulators also have dipswitches setup to be like the HxC or are they different?

3. Form factor size, my current 'real' 3.5 inch drives are a 1 inch thick top to botom and 4 inches wide. Does this form factor match the Gotek?

4. I saw that you offer a LCD panel attached for $6! That's kind of a no brainer to get that option included, but in the picture it didn't look like that cable was long enough to allow the LCD to extend very far off the board. I'd want it to at least sit outside of the front case through the Floppy slots. Could this cable be extended with a longer wire if I go with this option?

5. Last question, I promise! If for some reason this doesn't work out for me, do you accept returns as long as I cover the shipping costs back? I live in the United States, in the State of Georgia.

Thank you for your time! If this does work out, you can better believe that I'll be recommending your store and instructions for others like myself who are into the PC-98 hardware hobby, but are too poor to buy actual HxCs! I'll probably want to order two of these down the line since a lot of games require two disks at the same time from an A and B drive. I'd like to start with one though first and see how it goes.

-Thomas