This right here is one of those things you hope you never need for your Commodore 64, but the moment you do, you'll be really glad you went to the bother.
Sold by retro8bitshop, the Space Saver Pro is currently retailing for 17.95 EUR (at time of writing). Factor in shipping and PayPal fees and my wallet took a 29.41 EUR hit which converted to 26.12 GBP.
Now for a 30cm (11.81 inch) cable, that's not cheap, but let's not forget, we are not talking about mass production here. Manufacturing likely involves hundreds of units, not thousands and certainly not hundreds of thousands so you pay a premium for that. And this thing hasn't just been thrown together from spare parts. It's very nicely constructed from moulded plastic and suitably robust. It feels and looks "Pro" and I really appreciate that.
So what else am I getting for my money? Well, it's called the Space Saver Pro for a reason: the 90° angled DIN plug physically takes up less space as it doesn't protrude out as much as the standard power cable. Some might argue that this benefit is almost entirely negated by the obligatory joystick cable hanging out the the nearby Port 2 and if that's all the SpaceSaver Pro did, I might be minded to agree. However, it doesn't just save space. In fact, of more importance is the fact that it has an over-voltage protection circuit built in, such that if my power supply ever decides to go crazy and starts messing up the 5V supply, the SpaceSaver Pro will cut off at an advertised 5.4V threshold, and thus, in theory, prevent my chips from being fried.
I don't intend to test this theory. My power supply is not an original, but rather a somewhat newer Electroware model which, so far, hasn't put a foot wrong. That's not to say I entirely trust it - but I'd say the same about any new power supply from any vendor - shit happens and things can go wrong. Buying the SpaceSaver Pro is me hedging my bets and crossing my fingers that if the time ever comes, it'll do its job.
In use it just does its thing, sitting between my power supply cable and the Commodore 64. If the built in LED is green, everything's good. If it ever turns red, then the over-voltage has kicked in. It's as simple and elegant as that.
