Spore: 15 Easy Steps To Getting the Game Running · Sep 8, 08:33 AM
I like games but rarely have time for them. I also usually do not get a game when it is first released because of the bugs that generally accompany any first release.
I have, however, been anticipating Spore (EA) for almost two years. So last night I decided to not wait 3 weeks for the local Best Buy to get more boxed copies in and instead I purchased and downloaded the game from EA.
After the 2 hour download I ran the installer and then started the game. Screen goes black, resizes to 1024×768, EA logo appears and then poof, crashes. Try again, same story.
So, 2 hours later and a lot of EA forum trawling, I get the game to run. Here are the steps I had to take on my Windows XP, 3.0 Ghz Shuttle (1 GB RAM) with a Radeon 5500 (256 MB) video card to get the game to work:
- De-install Spore
- Install service pack 3 for Windows
- Update to the latest version of DirectX
- Download a shareware program called CCleaner and use it to clean the registry (some users had keys left over from creature creator that were causing problems for Spore)
- Download and install the latest Radeon 5500 drivers from ATI
- Re-install Spore (which because I jumped on the electronic download took another 2 hours to do :p)
- Download and install the DMCmdPortalClient.dll patch from http://www.spore.com (FAQ section)
- Manually change my screen resolution to 1024×768 before starting the game
- Ensure that the EA download manager I used to get the game was not running (some users reported that as an issue that would crash the game)
- Start Spore!
- Save your game every time you are about to enter the creature creator as the game still randomly crashes with this release (mine crashed about 10 minutes into the land level).
It worked. Easy :p.
— Max Schubert
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