> GPU makers have all abandoned this practice, which is a shame as it provided something different through box art alone. Now, we're drowning in bland boxes and similar-looking graphics cards
I feel like there could be a more positive adjective than “unhinged” if you're going to turn around and praise it. OED sez “wildly irrational and out of touch with reality”. How about “whimsical”? I love this stuff and think we need to bring this kind of whimsy back to computing.
> There's a scantily dressed lady in armor
Author neglects to mention that ATi/AMD had a named ongoing marketing character for many many years — Ruby!
- Agent Ruby Demo Compilation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUAuj0Jn8UI
- 2008 Ruby demo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YjXCae4Gu0
- Ruby origin story https://web.archive.org/web/20071023192128/http://game.amd.c...
- ATI Agent Ruby™ Usage Guidelines 1.0 http://www.barbaraburch.com/portfolio/whitepaper6.pdf
- She even stuck around long enough for the ATi name to entirely disappear from AMD Radeon branding: https://i.imgur.com/uBWfzCA.jpeg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwIMHX7rW8Q (2013)
- AMD-exclusive Ruby skin for Quake Champions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LRSqC9n0Tc (2017)
> GeForce 6600 GT was enclosed inside a box featuring a lovely lady
nᴠɪᴅɪᴀ had several named demo characters too, but they removed all the pretty lady ones some time in 2020. Compare:
- https://web.archive.org/web/20200921115422/https://www.nvidi...
- https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/community/demos/
Adam Sessler voice I give this article a two… out of five.