Those who are having trouble running Spore on Steam

[OldSalty3D]

Try these steps that have been accumilated from this thread and listed here.

Try this first:
(This worked for me, after I installed it on Origin)

Go into the properties of the main game of Spore, and any DLC for the game and uncheck the 'Use Steam Overlay' option. Then do a 'Verify Files' from the properties of the main Spore game. You will most likely find one corrupted file. I found that I get this error every time I 'Verify Files'. After doing this step it worked for me.


Try this second:
(I did this before doing the first step listed above and it worked)

You can use the CD keys an EA Origin account. If you don't have one you can get the client here..

https://www.origin.com/en-us/store/?utm_campaign=origin-search-us-pbm-g-origin&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_term=ea%20origin&sourceid=origin-search-us-pbm-g-origin

Log into your origin account, then select 'Add a Game' option under the 'Origin' tab at the top of the download cliant. Then input the CD key that you get from Steam after purchase. This adds the game to your Origin account, and you can download and play it from there. This also works with the Spore addons (DLC).

Spore did blank out the first time I ran it through Origin, but came back on shortly after that. Then it did an automatic download of the latest patch, and it's worked great ever since.

bongbbil had luck by doing this;

Originally posted by bongbbil:

I tried above all and they didn't worked. I just go to the Drive 'STEAM\SteamApps\common\Spore' and double click 'runme' and finally worked. !! :)

(We are still working on pinpointing the cause of Spore not working, and I'll update this post as we find out more. One of the things we are looking at is the possibility that you HAVE to activate Spore and the DLC on Origin using the provided CD keys. I've had to do with some of the other EA games, and I think Dragon Age was one of them. Once the game has been activated on Origin, then it seems to work on Steam. I turned my Steam Overlay back on, and Spore is still working. I don't think you have to download the game on Origin, though I did then I uninstalled it, then downloaded it on Steam. And others are now reporting that once they activated it on Origin it worked for them on Steam as well. So it's possible that activating the Game on Origin is the key. It must have something to do with the DRM protection that EA has. Again, I'll update this post once we learn more)

Hope that helps.

[Shaun the Lombax]

ye you cannot redeem you spore code onto origin ive tried

[OldSalty3D]

I just did it. It worked fine.

[Fireman2228]

SEAHAWK!! how did you get the game to work? I got it on Origin and it still crashes suggestions?

[OldSalty3D]

Actually all I did was run it through Origin, and it worked. But it would not work with Steam. When I tried running it through Steam the screen would go black, like the game was trying to load, then it would just stop, as if the game was closed down.

When I ran it through Origin it did the same thing, except that it started right back up again, and ran fine. Once it loaded I got the message in the game saying that there was an update for the game asking if I wished to install it. After doing the installation of the patch, it worked fine from then on. Been playing for the last 5 hours, that's why it took me so long to respond.. LOL

I wounder if there if there is a way to manualy install the patch, I haven't looked yet, but there might be a way to download the patch from EA, and install it manually, then try running again on Origin.

Sorry I couldn't be more helpfull, again, it just worked for me, and I'm using Windows 8.1 on my Asus G750JH laptop.

[OldSalty3D]

I did a little searching and found a patch at this location....

http://games.softpedia.com/get/Patch/Spore-Patch.shtml

I would be a little cautious though, I always hate downloading files from sites like this, never know what your truely getting. So make sure you have a virus program installed and running.

Hope that helps.

[Robert Headley]

Great idea, put a sale on a game that nobody is able to play.

[OldSalty3D]

yea, I find that happens more often than not with Steam. Granted older games can sometimes fail to work on newer operating systems. Guess it's just the nature of the beast. But once it's discovered that they don't work, they should at least put in the discription of the games that it doesn't work with new operating systems.

I would say that they should remove it fromt the store all together, but there are still people out there running older systems that could still enjoy the game.

[Robert Headley]

I may have a possible solution. I will let you know if it works.

[Robert Headley]

It worked. Download the game on Steam, add the games to your origin account using the CD keys, then log in using your origin email and password, and it works. YES!

[OldSalty3D]

Now I'm wishing hadn't got this game to work, played it for 7hrs straight yesterday! It's so freaking addictive!

[OldSalty3D]

I tried that on my end and it didn't work. But yes, that's one thing that can be tried.

[Mars]

Okay.. I mucked around for this a little, and will compress it to what I think worked for me:

Did a clean install of the game, turned off Steam Overlay, then verified the game cache (came up with 1 file needed of downloading). Then I started it, and it loads, but minimizes when I click the game tab in my windows taskbar. I clicked the icon in the taskbar again causing it to maximize for a second, and then minimize again, as I was used. Then I clicked the icon again, maximizing the window, and I clicked in the black screen with my mouse.. it flashed for a second, and then it showed up!

--

Previously, I installed it in Steam.. didn't work (got the minimized screen, which just bounced back whenever I maximized it).. then removed it from steam, download it on Origin.. no go.. removed it from Origin, redownloaded it.. installed the patch.. still no go.. removed it.. removed the VERY dubious Search Protect from my windows software (where the bleep did that come from??.. more info here for those who have it: http://lavasoft.com/mylavasoft/company/blog/how-to-remove-search-protect-by-conduit-ltd ), and the rest I did you can read above.

Hope this helps some people :)

[OldSalty3D]

Thanks Mars, I'm going to try that. I think I would much rather have it working steam than Origin any way. Would like to have just one game portal at a time any way.

[OldSalty3D]

actually, now that you mentioned it, no I didn't. Figured the addons were just that, addons. Adding new contect to the main game. I'm re-downloading the game and DLC content now. So we will know soon enough.

[OldSalty3D]

I just finished installing the game and DLC on Steam again. I turned off Steam Overlay on the game, and all DLC, and verified the files, and got the error. But funny thing is, every time I verify the files I get the same error. But I tried to run it any way, and yes it WORKS!

So thought I would uninstall the versions I had downloaded on Origin... Get this, when try to uninstall Spore from Origin it takes me to the uninstall programs window, and when I try to uninstall Spore it tells me that I need to uninstall the DLC content first, but when I try to uninstall the Creepy DLC it tells me that I need to uninstall Spore first! LOL

So I'm thinking that I may have to uninstall the files from Steam as well. So going to start from scratch, uninstall from both Steam and Origin (if I can), then re-download them on Steam only, and try it again then.