GMT GMA Checksums (Ignore if you don't have the GMT files anymore)

General
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Since the GMT category is read-only I think this fits in best here, wouldn’t be surprised if it was moved to Off Topic or something.

If you do not have the files of GMTower anymore, you can stop reading here. Seriously. (See how I properly format the important parts? I mean it.) I still have them, I won’t ask for yours or offer mine without permission. I will not get banned because you decide to start another PixelTail Games Copyright Infringement drama here.

Storytime

So my harddrive is a mess and I want to reduce that mess by moving certain things to a permanent archive, including things that I might load up one day for teh nostalgias or in case I need it for any weird reason like checking where a screenshot was taken or idunno. I’m of course talking about the data for GMTower. In the form of GMA files from the workshop.

Since I’m a paranoid perfectionist (See my bio) I wanna avoid corrupted or outdated files so I’ve been trying to find a way to acquire cryptographic hashes of the files to check they’re okay before I archive them. Those hashes are strings of seemingly random data (Welcome to cryptography) that are the result of mathematical operations producing a kind of fingerprint for the file. That means the chance of any other file generating the exact same hash as this one is lower than GMT officially reopening. I can compare the hashes to these of my files and if they match, I can be quite sure it’s fine.

Now I could just offer you my hashes and ask you if they match your files but I don’t know if there’s any niche way out there to find and download files based on their hashes so I don’t want to basically unknowingly torrent my files.

I could just ask you for your hashes but that just seems shady, like I was on the other side of above situation. I may or may not have tried that with more or less success via PMs. *cough*

Recently I have come up with a compromise: Publish the hashes non-publicly using one of the more reliably correct hashes as the password. One of the files that aren’t still up on the workshop.

What do you want?

I would like to ask anyone who might have an archive of the GMT files like me to generate SHA1 hashes which only collide if they are PDF files SHA256 hashes of theirs and compare them to mine, then tell me if they match.

How do I do that?

The commands are rather simple for someone used to the CLI. Make sure to be navigated into a directory containing only the GMT GMAs.

To generate a file “sums.txt”, just execute:

sha256sum *.gma > sums.txt

To verify that a sums.txt contains hashes matching the files in that same directory, execute:

sha256sum -c sums.txt

I don’t have any of these commands! I’m on Windows!

It’s surely not the only way but I personally use cmder: http://cmder.net/
I tried to test the Microsoft tool but couldn’t manage to use it at all while wondering why you’d have to store the hashes in a XML file so I wouldn’t recommend that personally.

Okay give me those hashes of yours.

Generate the hash for “gmod_tower_ball_race_content_144365670.gma” and use it as the password on the following pastecryptobin:

https://cryptobin.co/4871f2s1

Is that the best you can come up with?

Nope, no idea. If you know any better way to permanently archive the files, let me know.

2 Likes
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[Imagine someone’s deleted post above this. No idea why it was deleted so I’m not gonna explain any more than already stated.]

Let’s see, I try to verify my game files and the first public reply is someone posting a screenshot of some asshole doing the exact thing that made me think very carefully about how to approach the verification process and asks me in slightly broken English if I might be said asshole…

I’m going to go with a simple “No”. Also a quick filename search suggests that I don’t have that map file. Either it’s an old alpha version that’s not been part of the game files that I was subscribed to at the end or someone’s trying to recreate it, cue Copyright Drama.

I’m still missing confirmation for the Spring Lobby by the way, in case anyone who still has the GMAs didn’t find the motivation yet.

1 Like
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The devs dont really want anyone to have those files. Which is why they were removed from the workshop.

Also stop trying to be smart, you’re just coming off as condescending.

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Wasn’t that because since they’re a company now, they legally couldn’t stand by the decision to keep the files up?

Sorry for looking like someone who’s smart, that tends to happen when you’re smart. :smile_cat:

On a more serious note, if you think I can phrase something better without changing the content, you can PM me and I’ll possibly offend fewer future readers.

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If you look like someone who’s smart, you choose your langauge carefully to communicate more clearly instead of to appear intelligent. Managers to this to assert dominance - luckily my bullshit detector is well honed.

I’m only going off what I’ve been told both personally and also what I’ve heard in the public discord.

That’s the first I’ve heard anything about that.

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I am getting tired of this back and forth passive aggressive behavior going on here.

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I haven’t even read your post yet but I already know that I’ll answer properly in a PM because whenever I started to have a serious talk like this, the thread was closed faster than you can say “Exchange of objective arguments”. I will get my game files validated before that happens.

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I know I’m not a moderator, neither do I actually care about preserving GMT files or whatever, but @JohannesDau really wasn’t passive aggresive, from what I can see. He was actually pretty polite, unlike the other guy.

Then again, I have no say in this, so…

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Saying

is pretty passive aggressive.

The main topic was derailed into banter back and forth.

As for the files, we will not be providing the GMT files anymore.

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Please don’t attack each other and keep to the topic.

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It doesn’t appear like I can edit the OP so I cannot remove outdated stuff but:

It’s done.

Thanks to two forum members who kindly donated Checksums, one of which had a different file that made me realize I had redundant and deprecated files (Thanks Gmod for keeping a version of the Summer Lobby for every rename in the Workshop! I was totally not unnecessarily confused!), I now have an archive of every .gma file that has ever been part of my GMT experience, maybe even every publicly released one.

Here’s the SHA1 as well as SHA256 hashes of them, password is again the SHA256 hash of “gmod_tower_ball_race_content_144365670.gma”:

https://cryptobin.co/h5r5v4a4

The old policy of not sharing the files themselves stays the same since PixelTail haven’t changed theirs either (Duh!), same applies for posting the hashes publicly.