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<nowiki>Insert non-formatted text here</nowiki>'''Hashes''' are alphanumeric strings of text generated from given input. In emulation, they're used to verify that dumped copies of a game are legitimate, because even one small change would result in the hash being completely different.
The most common algorithms to generate hashes are MD5 and SHA-1, but like many others they've been broken, meaning it's possible to make two different files with the same hash on these algorithms. Hashes are best used against corruption, to determine if game files or other data is intact and working. They're used in BitTorrent pieces to verify that the files are complete and can be shared, and emulators like [[MAME]] require BIOS and ROM files to match their hash exactly or else the machine can't be used. MAME changes these hashes whenever discoveries are made about a given system.
