Since I got my 3DS back when it was new, I also had the opportunity to get some accessories for it. Like this hard carrying case, which was discontinued about a year after launch day. It's quite a helpful thing, really; and, for a long time, it was also the sarcophagus that entombed my 3DS until I excavated it in last December.
It has 3 slots for game cartridges, a weird velcro strap thing which I've decided is a stylus holder, a netted area where I've started keeping important computer media, and of course the main compartment for the console and its chamois cleaning cloth underneath the cartridge flap. While the case came with its own 3DS-themed cloth (which works about as well as you could expect), I've also included a works-better blue cloth that I got from a business expo back in 2018. Originally designed for glasses, it makes short work of the various oily smudges that the console's casing picks up during use. The blue stylus in the front there is actually a smartphone pen that I lost the writing components for and discovered, quite by accident, that the 3DS's touchscreen was reactive to the stylus bit. That's helpful, because now I don't need to hopelessly scratch the screen using Nintendo's hard plastic stylus, which is too much of a bother to access anyway. The Classic 3DS really is a shining example of why commercial artists should not be industrial designers. Whatever.
I have 2 flashdrives; one with cartoons on it, the other with all the games in the 15 Essentials series; and a GUM toothpick container with my 3 most important SD cards... er, actually, it's Equate, not GUM. Oh well, same thing. You say "tomater", I zader madermorts. I figure the 3DS case is the safest place for them, since I always have it with me. Also, behind the media in the net compartment, I have a pad of PostIt notes; while it's nice to have if I ever need a PostIt note, mostly it's just there to stop the flashdrives sliding about in transit.
I have a velcro pouch in my backpack, made from the cargo pocket of an old pair of trousers, that I call the Pouch of Dumb Technology. Not because it's dumb, i.e. stupid; but because it's not smart. It doesn't seek out an internet access point and immediately attempt to communicate megabytes of analytics data to a far-flung datacentre. I've got my digital camera in there, my dictaphone, the torch off my bike, a notepad, a D20, and a couple of charging cables in there. I take this everywhere. The thing that was most appealing about jailbreaking my 3DS was that I could add a videogame system to the Pouch of Dumb Technology. Obviously, the carrying case is too large for the physical pouch, but I take both of them everywhere, along with an emergency supply of food. Not like a snacklebox or anything, just a packet of trail-mix and 4 Poptarts. Reason: I don't like going places. I'm afraid my car will break down, or something will happen, so I use my backpack like my inventory, so I can remind myself that I'm the player character in a roleplaying game. And my 3DS carrying case is like Pouch of Dumb Technology, part II.
In an actual evacuation emergency, I've got the Satchel of Dumb Technology; a shoulder-bag I got from a kids' entrepreneurship camp the summer before 6th grade (junior 4) which is surprisingly high-quality considering I was a kid when I got it. It has my Windows 7 laptop, a spare mouse, an F310, and a few other things pertinent to using my laptop outside the house.
In no event do I ever carry a handbag, however. I never could get used to it; it's hard to hold onto, doesn't hold much, and has already been obsoleted by my backpack, so... right.
--6 April 2024--