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The SPORE FAQ

I'm probably going to move this somewhere else later on, and put the link here.
Please add links to sources & images when available. Thanks!

The fan-made SPORE FAQ (last update: May 1st, 2019)

1. General questions

1.1 What does the SPORE series contain?

Games :

  • SPORE is the base game that you're probably looking for. It was released on September 7, 2008. (source)
  • SPORE Creatures is a spin-off for the Nintendo DS & early smartphones, released on September 7, 2008 in North America, and September 4 in Europe. It is a 2.5D RPG based on the Creature Stage.
  • SPORE Origins, also known as SPORE Mobile, is a port of the Cell Stage to early iDevices & handhelds such as the Nokia N-Gage. It was released in Summer 2008. (source)
  • SPORE Hero is a Wii spin-off. It is closer to a adventure game.
  • SPORE Hero Arena is a DS spin-off centered around action minigames.
    • Both Hero games have been released together, on October 6, 2009 in North America, and October 8, 2009 in Europe.
  • Darkspore was a spin-off that featured a radically different gameplay. It was released on April 26, 2011 in North America, and April 28 in Europe. (source)

Expansion packs :

  • SPORE : Creepy & Cute Parts Pack adds creature parts to the base game, akin to The Sims 3's Stuff Packs. It was released in "late 2008". (source?)
  • SPORE Galactic Adventures is the only official expansion pack, adding adventures to the Space Stage. It was released on June 23, 2009. (source)
  • SPORE Bot Parts was a parts pack released in 2010 through a EA/Dr. Pepper promotion in the United States. See 2.x to learn more.

Miscellaneous :

  • SPORE Creature Creator is a standalone release of the game's creature editor in order to promote the game. It was released on June 17, 2008 in North America, and June 27 in Europe. (source)
  • SPORE Creature Keeper was a planned game for PC & Nintendo DS that was supposed be out in Summer 2009. It was a Sims-like game targeted at young users, where the player took care of various creatures living together in a house. The game was eventually cancelled for unknown reasons, with little to no footage being available online. (source 1, source 2)
  • SPORE Island was a Facebook game centered on the Creature Stage that was available from November 5th, 2009 to July 7th, 2010. Players were able to design a creature by swapping parts and make it compete against friends. The game was shut down for economical reasons.
  • Various prototypes are available on SPORE's website. (TODO: archive them somewhere else, before it's too late!)

1.2 What editions of SPORE/Darkspore are available?

Physical editions :

  • SPORE was released in two editions :
    • Regular DVD box, with a reversible cover
    • Galactic Edition, in a cardboard box, including : a 120-page artbook, a poster, a 100-page booklet, and two English DVDs, "The Making of Spore" & "How to Build a Better Being", the latest being made by National Geographic
  • Galactic Adventures, Creepy & Cute, and the Creature Creator were released in regular DVD boxes.
  • Darkspore was also released in two editions :
    • Regular DVD box
    • Limited edition, in a regular DVD box, including bonus items in-game : the Maldri creature, along with the Galactic Eviscerator, the Hyperspatial Protector, and the Darkmatter Starhelm. (source)

Digital editions :
As of April 2019, three platforms are selling digital copies of SPORE and its extensions : Origin, GOG & Steam.
They offer a bundle containing the base game + extensions named the SPORE Collection (More Spore on Steam).
On Origin and Steam, you can also buy the items separately.

Notes :

  • An EA account is required to play online. GOG & Steam offer CD keys in order to allow this, but there are quite a few reports about these being invalid.
  • The Steam version cannot be modded. (source?)
  • Creepy & Cute and Galactic Adventures are broken on Origin when installed on a Mac.

Darkspore is not digitally available.

1.3 Are the SPORE/Darkspore servers still up?

Yes, the SPORE servers are still up and ran by EA. In 2017 (source?), the servers were migrated, and a patch was consequently released. This patch is only available for digital editions. (source?)

The Darkspore servers, however, were shut down on March, 1st 2016. As the game was fully online, it is now unplayable. (source)

1.4 Are there any attempts to made a player-managed server?

Notice : This probably infringes the EULA and your country laws, based on your residence.

There are no known attemps to rewrite the SPORE server software. As for Darkspore, there is a WIP localhost server called Darkspore-LS. More information here.

1.5 What is the correct capitalisation of SPORE?

SPORE, Spore & Darkspore are correct.
For the sake of coherence, we use "SPORE" in this FAQ.

2. Technical questions

2.1 What is the latest version of SPORE?

TODO: The latest version is ????, released on ????.

2.x Can I run both the base game & the Creature Creator?

No. (source?)

2.x What is the best way to run SPORE on Mac and GNU/Linux systems?

SPORE was never officially released on GNU/Linux, and the Mac version aged poorly. The Mac port is actually the Windows release packaged with Cider, which is a depreciated technology wrapping a (now old) version of WINE around games.
The port suffers from various issues on modern macOS, such as:

  • Galactic Adventures not working
  • Base game only running through the cider_noui executable inside SPORE.app
  • Creepy & Cute not being available on Origin

The best way to run the game on these operating systems, is through a Windows virtual machine on Oracle VirtualBox 6.x.
These settings have been tested on a 2018 Mac with macOS Mojave 10.14.4 :

  • Windows Vista or higher recommended
  • 2D & 3D hardware acceleration enabled
  • WDDM (Aero) driver installed through Guest Additions on the virtual machine.

The overall experience is pretty natural, although not perfect. There seems to be severe audio latency on some hosts.

2.x Is it possible to redeem a physical copy of the game?

Currently, Origin is still accepting CD keys. However, please ensure that your physical copy is brand-new : in order to "fight piracy", EA does not support pre-owned copies.
Bear in mind that EA might not offer help on redeeming physical copies, as the game is quite old.

3. Gameplay questions

4. Unused content

For more information, check out SPORE's entry at The Cutting Room Floor.

5. Mods

5.1 How do I remove the 30 fps cap?

  • Inside SPORE / GA's installation folder, open Data/Config/Properties.txt, and append this line at the end of the file :
    property frameLimitMS 44 int
  • Calculate the minimal miliseconds to render a frame and round it to the closest int (in this case, we're aiming for 60 fps, therefore : 1000 ms / 60 fps ~= 17)
  • In the same folder (Data/Config), open ConfigManager.txt and append this line :
    intProp frameLimitMS [YOUR_RESULT]
    • In our case, that would be intProp frameLimitMS 17

6. Community

6.1 Where is the community gathered?

While the community is still very active, it is scattered around various places :

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s0r00t commented Apr 11, 2019

Corrected :)

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