Steam Achievement Manager [ SAM ]

[quadribble]

Before you start reading this, no. This is not gonna be a discussion questioning whether it is safe or not to install it, or just crying about the fact that I got banned.
The thing is, when you download SAM, you get a .zip file, in which there are 2 executable applications. One of them is SAM.Picker.exe, an executable file that helps you unlock achievements or remove them from your account as you wish.
But there's a second .exe file called SAM.Game.exe, and I have no idea what it does.
I'd click it to figure it out but I'm not sure if there are some requirements my pc has to meet in order for me to open the thing or I'll get VAC-banned otherwise.
My suggestion is that the SAM.Game.exe gets you more hours for a game? I don't even know if that's possible, but hey, there's an app for getting achievements and items for games, so maybe I'm wrong.

So yeah, if anyone out there that has already installed SAM and knows its ways around the program could help me, I'd be really glad.
Thanks!

[ReBoot]

The one is the picker, the other is a pretend-game. Did you know that Steam itself comes with multiple EXECUTABLE binaries? Being afraid of that second binary but not of the first soooo doesn't make sense.

Anyway, treat SAM as the Steam ACHIEVEMENT Manager which it is advertised as. It doesn't get you items though.

[quadribble]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

The one is the picker, the other is a pretend-game. Did you know that Steam itself comes with multiple EXECUTABLE binaries? Being afraid of that second binary but not of the first soooo doesn't make sense.

Anyway, treat SAM as the Steam ACHIEVEMENT Manager which it is advertised as. It doesn't get you items though.

Ok
so what does it do
It's a pretend-game so what's its purpose?
Also I meant like, giving you items through the achievement system, like you get an achievement in poker night 2 that grants you items for TF2

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by jukebox:

It's a pretend-game so what's its purpose?

To tell Steam that a specific game just unlocked an achievement. Have you fully understood the purpose of SAM?

Originally posted by jukebox:

Also I meant like, giving you items through the achievement system, like you get an achievement in poker night 2 that grants you items for TF2

AFAIR you don't get items from cheated ahievements, but trying can't hurt (well, it actually can as bugged achievements have been talked about in the past).

[quadribble]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Originally posted by jukebox:

It's a pretend-game so what's its purpose?

To tell Steam that a specific game just unlocked an achievement. Have you fully understood the purpose of SAM?

Originally posted by jukebox:

Also I meant like, giving you items through the achievement system, like you get an achievement in poker night 2 that grants you items for TF2

AFAIR you don't get items from cheated ahievements, but trying can't hurt (well, it actually can as bugged achievements have been talked about in the past).

No no you can, I just did that.
But yeah, so SAM.Game does nothing if you execute it?

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by jukebox:

But yeah, so SAM.Game does nothing if you execute it?

It would do it's job were you to execute it right. The main executable takes care of executing it in the right way.

[quadribble]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Originally posted by jukebox:

But yeah, so SAM.Game does nothing if you execute it?

It would do it's job were you to execute it right. The main executable takes care of executing it in the right way.

So I don't gotta worry about it, basically.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by jukebox:

Originally posted by ReBoot:

It would do it's job were you to execute it right. The main executable takes care of executing it in the right way.

So I don't gotta worry about it, basically.

Counter-quesiton: why would you worry about it? It comes with a program that you want to execute anyway. It is made by the same person you've decided to trust when doubleclicking SAM.Picker.exe. If the author wanted to include something malicous, they'd have linked into SAM.Picker.exe, not going for a wholly different executable just to do something evil.
What exactly is there to worry about?

[quadribble]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Originally posted by jukebox:

So I don't gotta worry about it, basically.

Counter-quesiton: why would you worry about it? It comes with a program that you want to execute anyway. It is made by the same person you've decided to trust when doubleclicking SAM.Picker.exe. If the author wanted to include something malicous, they'd have linked into SAM.Picker.exe, not going for a wholly different executable just to do something evil.
What exactly is there to worry about?

Well the entire program is "illegal", and the only reason I clicked SAM.Picker was because I watched a video where I guy explained what it did, but he didn't say anything about the second "app", so I didn't feel like messing with it until I kinda knew what it did.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by jukebox:

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Counter-quesiton: why would you worry about it? It comes with a program that you want to execute anyway. It is made by the same person you've decided to trust when doubleclicking SAM.Picker.exe. If the author wanted to include something malicous, they'd have linked into SAM.Picker.exe, not going for a wholly different executable just to do something evil.
What exactly is there to worry about?

Well the entire program is "illegal", and the only reason I clicked SAM.Picker was because I watched a video where I guy explained what it did, but he didn't say anything about the second "app", so I didn't feel like messing with it until I kinda knew what it did.

So you're fun trusting SAM.Picker.exe but are skeptical towards SAM.Game.exe, despite those two binaries coming from the same download, from the same programmer?

[quadribble]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Originally posted by jukebox:

Well the entire program is "illegal", and the only reason I clicked SAM.Picker was because I watched a video where I guy explained what it did, but he didn't say anything about the second "app", so I didn't feel like messing with it until I kinda knew what it did.

So you're fun trusting SAM.Picker.exe but are skeptical towards SAM.Game.exe, despite those two binaries coming from the same download, from the same programmer?

Yes, because I only know how to use one of them both, and there were some cases of people getting VAC banned because of how they used it, so not knowing how to use the second binary scared me.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by jukebox:

Originally posted by ReBoot:

So you're fun trusting SAM.Picker.exe but are skeptical towards SAM.Game.exe, despite those two binaries coming from the same download, from the same programmer?

Yes, because I only know how to use one of them both, and there were some cases of people getting VAC banned because of how they used it, so not knowing how to use the second binary scared me.

You seem stuck thinking that you're not using SAM.Game.exe, that SAM.Picker.exe doesn't ever call into SAM.Game.exe, that the SAM.Game.exe is included just to waste some extra kilobytes of download.
That assumption is false, you are using SAM.Game.exe when you're using SAM.

Next, while the danger of a VAC ban isn't too theoretical (after all, the author of SAM warns you of a possible ban, so yeah), why are you so sure it's SAM.Game.exe which would case the ban and not SAM.Picker.exe? After the paragraph above, it doesn't matter anyway as Picker calls into Game so if Game causes bans, then doubleclicking Picker will get Game loaded anyway.

How exactly did you drew the connection between the second binary and VAC bans in the first place?

You're using Steam. Steam comes with one main EXECUTABLE Binary which is Steam.exe and half a dozen or so other EXE files which get called by Steam.exe. Frankly, you shouldn't be surprised by the concept of auxiliary EXE files. Steam is a singular product, you start it with Steam.exe, then it loads what it needs.
It's the literally same with SAM, it is a singular product, you start it with SAM.Picker.exe and it loads what it needs.

[quadribble]

I don't think continuing this conversation is worth it anymore
I have no doubts, you already answered my questions, and I believe I've made my point clear.
This is getting much much longer than needed.

I was taught how to use SAM.Picker
I didn't know SAM.Game was the program SAM.Picker interacted with to get the achievements, but now I do.

To me, SAM.Picker could also get someone banned if used incorrectly, but because I had watched a video on how to use it, I wasn't worried about it.

Had I watched a video on what SAM.Game worked, I wouldn't have been so scared to execute it and see what it did.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by jukebox:

To me, SAM.Picker could also get someone banned if used incorrectly, but because I had watched a video on how to use it, I wasn't worried about it.

Had I watched a video on what SAM.Game worked, I wouldn't have been so scared to execute it and see what it did.

Don't rely too much on videos. The one you watched clearly gave you a completely false impression of the binaries & dangers involved.
While there is good (as in "informational") videos out there, the amount of crap among videos is way higher, than among text. That, and while reading a text, it's easier to pause and look up a specific term/concept. Of course, you can actually do the same with videos...

All in all, I'd like to tell you to pick your videos based on how informative they are. The one you're talking about clearly wasn't.

[quadribble]

k thx

[Kazza]

For other people that find this, the code uses SAM picker and SAM game in the way that you expect, with SAM game opening properly when you select a game, but opening either will open SAM picker to start with in the correct way, so basically you don't need to care and can open either and it will do its job.