Also include SPORE™ Galactic Adventures (24720). It's more like a "DLC" or an extension pack released as a separate game.

SPORE™ Creepy & Cute Parts Pack (17440) refuses to launch though, also being a "DLC". Could not find the default preferences. The data directory is missing or corrupt. [1004]

The issue of SPORE™ Creepy & Cute Parts Pack (17440) is easily fixed by adding a string value to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE → SOFTWARE → Wow6432node → Electronic Arts → SPORE called datadir with value Z:\mnt\windows\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Spore\Data\ (path to your Spore's Data dir). This key is present by default in both 17390 and 24720, which makes me think it's an issue with the game itself, and not with Proton.

Btw resolution change does require a game restart. IIUC, it's a feature, and not a bug.

@vanyasem I've checked it on windows today and you're right. IDK why game working this way but it isn't a Proton bug.

P.S. I've edit first comment

Confirmed. It worked perfectly.

Distro: Linux Mint 19 Tara
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 1700
GPU: GTX 1070, Nvidia proprietary driver 396.54
RAM: 32GB
Kernel (custom) - 4.17.14 (optimized for Ryzen)
Resolution: 1920x1080
Proton 3.7-3

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but right now there is a terrain glitch that makes the game unplayable depending on how bad the terrain is. This is an issue in wine itself (See this: https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=43708)

Good news people, thanks to d9vk, terrain glitching should be gone. (I tested it for about half and hour, and no terrain glitching happened) You HAVE to use d9vk. It glitches on wined3d and Gallium nine.

It plays fairly well with d9vk, but in the creature stage it seems like nests of other species are somehow "transient" - they disappear and reappear. I've also encountered nests far out in the ocean, further than the player can go without dying.

I'm also now experiencing quite frequent crashing in the tribal stage.

In any case, definitely doesn't seem ready to be whilelisted at this point in time.

I just got Spore on Steam and I can't get it to run at all. It's really frustrating. :(

OS: Ubuntu 19.10
KERNEL: 5.3.0-24-lowlatency
CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2695 v3 @ 2.30GHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080
GPU DRIVER: NVIDIA 435.21
RAM: 512 GB

Trying with Proton 4.11.11 it just silently fails and I get this in the proton log file: https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/FyjtnpFNtz/

Trying with 4.21-GE-2-8 it pops up a "File not found" windows before exiting and I get this in the proton log file: https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/rN7fvQK8m6/

No idea where to start so any help would be amazing!

Also include SPORE™ Galactic Adventures (24720). It's more like a "DLC" or an extension pack released as a separate game.

SPORE™ Creepy & Cute Parts Pack (17440) refuses to launch though, also being a "DLC". Could not find the default preferences. The data directory is missing or corrupt. [1004]

The issue of SPORE™ Creepy & Cute Parts Pack (17440) is easily fixed by adding a string value to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE → SOFTWARE → Wow6432node → Electronic Arts → SPORE called datadir with value Z:\mnt\windows\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Spore\Data\ (path to your Spore's Data dir). This key is present by default in both 17390 and 24720, which makes me think it's an issue with the game itself, and not with Proton.

This allows the game to boot, but doesn't solve the underlying problem: these games should all run under the same wineprefix.
To solve this problem:

• create a new wineprefix with protontricks. The prefix directory will be created in a path like ~/.local/share/wineprefixes/<prefix_name>
• replace all the directories of the game-specific prefix (in path like ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compactdata/<AppID>/pfx) with a link to the directory of the new wineprefix you created.
• Alternatively, if you don't want to use protontricks, you can link the pfx directories of the DLCs to the pfx directory of the base game.
• Finally, launch the base game, then the DLCs. All the necessary registry values will be automatically generated.

Now you can access all the DLC content, regardless of which game you launch.

It looks like I'm being extremely unlucky with my attemps to make the game work while on Linux Mint 20.1. I'm pasting here my report that I left on ProtonDB earlier this day.

My OS is Linux Mint 20.1 and this game doesn't seem to set up files properly or something, which makes it unable to play this game because every time you launch this DLC, it launches the original Spore instead. Let alone errors 1004 and 2000 that you will have to encounter before you even get to the start of the problem.

When you download Spore or one of its DLCs - Creepy&Cute and Galactic Adventures, if you want to open any of the games, you'll have to fix errors 1004 and 2000 first. To fix them, you have to go
~/.steam/debian-installation/steamapps/compatdata/
(the destination may vary, I've seen people have it in ~/.local/share/Steam)

There you'll find 3 directories: 17390 (original Spore), 17440 (Creepy&Cute), 24720 (Galactic Adventures). You have to perform the same action listed below with EACH of the directories (before moving up to the other problems that might occur).

To run the original Spore, go to
/compatdata/17390/pfx/
and there you will find "system.reg". Open it.
All you need to do now is paste the following strings anywhere between other strings (they are separated by whitespace).

Here is what you should place:

[Software\\Wow6432Node\\electronic arts\\spore] 1627191375
#time=1d78116fc363040
"appdir"="Spore"
"datadir"="Z:\\home\\USERNAME\\.steam\\debian-installation\\steamapps\\common\\Spore\\Data"
"installcompleted"=dword:00000001
"installloc"="Z:\\home\\USERNAME\\.steam\\debian-installation\\steamapps\\common\\Spore"
"locale"="en-us"
"playerdir"="My Spore Creations"
"reindexyesorno"=dword:00000000

Replace USERNAME with your username.
Edit «datadir» and «installloc» with the appropriate destination in case your destination differs from mine.

Now save file and that's it, errors 1004 and 2000 should be gone. (This is what you'll need to do with each of the DLCs as well.) You can now launch the game. When you launch, you might get blackscreen while hearing the sounds of game intro's cutscene. Eventually you'll find that the game's textures are messed up. That is fixed through choosing compatibility with Proton 4.11-13 or older.

That fixes the original Spore.

Unfortunately, that is not quite enough for getting Creepy&Cute to work. I mean you may launch Creepy&Cute, but it will launch the original Spore instead, meaning you simply won't find Creepy&Cute parts anywhere.
After all the hackery I've been trying to perform in hope of making the parts appear in game, it eventually turned out you have to go
~/.steam/debian-installation/steamapps/common/Spore/bp1content/
where you'll find "BoosterPack_01.package". Now copy this file and paste it in
~/.steam/debian-installation/steamapps/common/Spore/Data

That way, you get Creepy&Cute to work.

As for the 'Galactic Adventures' DLC, there's nothing I have tried that worked. I've not been able to fix it, as whenever you launch Galactic Adventures, it launches the original Spore instead (with Creepy&Cute working, though).
I have tried performing the same hackery as with Creepy&Cute - copying all files and directories from
~/.steam/debian-installation/steamapps/common/Spore/DataEP1/ ('DataEP1' is the 'Galactic Adventures' directory)
to 'Data' directory. And at first I had thought that I made it:

1. The game intro's cutscene sounds in 'Galactic Adventures' differ from the one in the original Spore;
2. The Spore Galactic Adventures logo shows up;
3. You can view adventures in Sporepedia.

BUT. You cannot play or edit adventures. You can't create them (there is no such creator). Neither do you have 'Galactic Adventures' (4rd) option in Spore Main Menu. So you can't play Galactic Adventures, in fact.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get my head around things anymore. I've written this report in hope that others who will encounter the issues and google them would come across this report and find it useful.

Surprisingly, I didn't find any other report here mentioning what I have mentioned, thus I don't know why I happened to be so unlucky with my Linux Mint 20.1 and see everybody have it fine and working, and with 1004 and 2001 errors being the peak of their struggling.
I'll try and install a different distribution where Spore is reported to be working and see if I can make something out of this.

@bighugedev I will add to this last comment, testing in Ubuntu 20.04. To your point about your fix using the DataEP1 directory, this one seems to also have a config folder. If you compare the files in DataEP1 vs Data folders you'll notice one of them has this:

$ diff Data/Config/Properties.txt DataEP1/Config/Properties.txt    
27a28,29
> property OptionHighResTextures 0x08488f95 uint32 #note: this one is controlled by a cheat
> 
42a45,66
> 
> # Launching EP1 for the first time etc
> property ScenarioStarEffectsEnabled      0x08069a6c bool
> property ScenarioGAEditorEffectsEnabled  0x0806dbba bool
> property ScenarioGAButtonClicked         0x080d7de1 bool
> property ScenarioGAFirstLaunched         0x080d97fe bool
> property ScenarioSpaceGameLaunched       0x080eaa93 bool
> property ScenarioCaptainEditorLaunched   0x080d8460 bool
> property ScenarioAdventureEditorLaunched 0x080d8470 bool
> 
> # Scenario Tutorial Completion
> property NumScenarioTutorialCompletedBuild 0x07abf095 uint32
> property NumScenarioTutorialCompletedTerrain 0x07abf09d uint32
> 
> # Scenario Play Mode Tutorial Completion
> property ScenarioPlayModeTutorialComplete 0x07be69ad bool
> 
> # Captain Editor Tutorial Completion
> property CaptainEditorTutorialCompleted 0x07be27a2 bool
> 
> # Captain Sporpedia Tutorial Completion
> property CaptainSporepediaTutorialCompleted 0x07d1fe81 bool

I did replace one with the other but that doesn't seem to be sufficient. I wonder if there's some other registry value that configures where to find galactic adventure files.

I've gotten Galactic Adventures working by also adding the following entry to the system.reg:

[Software\\Wow6432Node\\Electronic Arts\\SPORE_EP1]
"AddOnID"=dword:00000002
"DataDir"="Z:\\home\\rdelfin\\.steam\\debian-installation\\steamapps\\common\\Spore\\Data"
"PackID"=dword:28448390

However, this is only after copying all the .package files from DataEP1 to Data. I'm not sure in retrospect whether this was necessary or not. Additionally, it's possible the DataDir field above could be set to [...]\\Spore\\DataEP1, but I've not tested it
However

So, did you get Galactic Adventures to work or not? Is the adventures creator available to you?

Additionally, it's possible the DataDir field above could be set to [...]\\Spore\\DataEP1, but I've not tested it

Yes, I tested all of those and no, the game would otherwise pop up 2000 and 1004 issues again.

@bighugedev I did, but only after adding the additional entry in system.reg. Note it's distinct to the one you added as yours is for Software\Wow6432Node\electronic arts\spore whereas this one's for Software\Wow6432Node\electronic arts\spore_ep1. I assume it's because it doesn't just contain creator content but also gameplay.

But TL;DR, yes. This got full Galactic Adventures with the Adventures Creator available and functional

In addition to the system.reg edits that have already been mentioned (note that my path was .steam/steam and not .steam/debian-installation) I had to add MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=4.6 %command% as a launch option for the game. This was on an older laptop with integrated graphics. The game seems to work now. I figured this out from the proton log file which included X Error of failed request: GLXBadFBConfig

Doesn't even boot for me, unfortunately. Three alert dialogues pop up and then it just crashes.
Alerts:

1. Configuration Script Failed [2000]
2. Could not find needed package. The data directory is missing or corrupt.
3. Pops up randomly

Distro:Pop!_OS 21.10
Kernel:5.15.8-76051508-generic
RAM:16 GB
GPU Driver:NVIDIA 470.86
GPU:NVIDIA GeForce MX150
CPU:Intel Core i7-8565U @ 1.80GHz

Additionally, it's possible the DataDir field above could be set to [...]\\Spore\\DataEP1, but I've not tested it

Yes, I tested all of those and no, the game would otherwise pop up 2000 and 1004 issues again.

@rdelfin @bighugedev Not if you do it wrong enough. After cross-referencing with a GOG install of Spore in regular WINE, I discovered that the key to making it work seems to be...weirdly specific use of forward-slashes.

[Software\\Wow6432Node\\electronic arts\\spore] 1627191375
#time=1d78116fc363040
"appdir"="Spore"
"datadir"="Z:\\home\\splitwirez\\.steam\\debian-installation\\steamapps\\common\\Spore/Data"
"installcompleted"=dword:00000001
"installloc"="Z:\\home\\splitwirez\\.steam\\debian-installation\\steamapps\\common\\Spore"
"locale"="en-us"
"playerdir"="My Spore Creations"
"reindexyesorno"=dword:00000000


[Software\\Wow6432Node\\electronic arts\\SPORE_EP1] 1240428288
#time=1c9c38000000000
"AddOnID"=dword:00000002
"DataDir"="Z:\\home\\splitwirez\\.steam\\debian-installation\\steamapps\\common\\Spore/DataEP1/"
"PackID"=dword:28448390

(replace my username "splitwirez" with yours, of course)

Then again, nothing else about this game makes any sense, so why would this be any different?

Oh and you'll also need this if you have Creepy and Cute:

[Software\\electronic arts\\spore Creepy and Cute Parts Pack] 1597834746
#time=1d67617c20533b8
"AddOnID"=dword:00000001
"DataDir"="Z:\\home\\splitwirez\\.steam\\debian-installation\\steamapps\\common\\Spore/bp1content/"
"PackID"=dword:06f4b5d1

(again, replace my username "splitwirez" with yours)

If anyone else can verify that this works for them as well, that would be greatly appreciated.

Cleaning up after the mess of people with their Core Spore and GA data folders in the same folder is not going to be fun...

Hi,
I'm trying to get Spore Collection (GOG) to run on Heroic launcher. So far, I've got no luck with the registry edits (I've modified the paths to reflect Heroic launcher install folders) on both my Arch Linux laptop and my Steam Deck.

At first, I got error 1004 but after tinkering with the registry and trying multiple Proton version, the game still does not start but now I get no error window on both my devices.

Maybe the Collection version does not have the same required registry keys as the original/Steam version because it comes bundled with all DLCs (the file structure seems to be the same tho).

I'm trying installing the game from Lutris and see how the registry has been modified.
EDIT : Doesn't install at all from Lutris.

I rather have all my GOG games under the Heroic launcher, but it is worth a shot.

Thanks for the helpful comments.

@lululock71 FWIW, my tests (mentioned above) were performed with the GOG release.

I've had better luck with Spore when using regular WINE than with any of these helper tools (e.g. Lutris, Heroic).

Honestly though...I don't think the WINE release or fork is the issue unto itself - Proton's only real disadvantage is the...lack of clarity on how to invoke it without going through Steam.

So uh...how, exactly, did you attempt to install the game...and how, exactly did you attempt to run it after installing?

Hi,

To install the game, I simply installed the Heroic Launcher through the AUR (Arch Linux) and after connecting to my GOG account, I installed the game.

I tried multiple versions of Proton with slightly different results but overall got nothing close to the game starting.

I hadn't tried "vanilla" Wine yet. I'll give a shot later.

Edit : Installing and launching via Wine (brand new prefix) don't work either. At this point, I'm considering running it through a Windows XP Virtual Machine...

Trying the registry fix doesn't work... It just gets overwritten by steam

I get error 1004 (Could not find the Data directory, we cannot run. [1004]), after making the file immutable

Edit : Installing and launching via Wine (brand new prefix) don't work either.

@lululock71 Whatever happening here doesn't make any sense to me, going off of what you've said so far - even the macOS release of Spore was just the Windows release in a CIDER wrapper...I can't help but feel like something else is up here.
So, tell me...how exactly did it "not work"?

Hi,
I honestly got frustrated over this and I tried running Spore in a VM. While it seemed to work flawlessly, sound did not and I got even more frustrated to the point I gave up for a time.

I tried again to run Spore with Wine, so I tweaked the registry directly with regedit. For simplicity sake, I used the system default Wineprefix (it should work with any prefix).

It appears that for some reason, the GOG version of Spore Collection does not add the necessary registry keys for the game to be able to boot when installing. Could be a EA issue. We all figured that out.

So I modified the registry using this very old tutorial as a template : HERE

The tutorial mentions it works only with Windows 7, so I've set my default system prefix to "Windows 7".

For the file paths, I modified them to reflect my Wineprefix configuration and file location on my system.

All the registry entries were missing, ofc. After adding everything, the registry looks like that :

The only Wine version the game would start is my system's default : Wine 7.22. I tried to launch it with multiple Proton versions, without any success (the game would instantly crash without any error). I don't mind, as long as it works. That game is so old it doesn't need all the newer optimizations anyway.

The game started properly after those edits but the performance was horrendous. I installed DXVK to my Wineprefix using Winetricks again and it solved that issue. I still need to apply a few edits to be able to play at 60FPS, etc. but that's trivial at this point.

As mentioned above, I still need to add the entries for Galactic Adventures.

I don't have time for that today, as it is already very late. I'll make sure to update here when I'll make GA work and after I've tried that "fix" on my Steam Deck.

I've seen that you can run .reg files with Wine to add info to its own registry but it looks like Wine does not support the Windows .reg files encoding. One should be able to get a working .reg file and it would then be much easier to share and automate these edits with a simple command like :
WINEPREFIX=/home/path/to/prefix wine start regedit.exe /path/to/reg/file

I don't know why but my previous attempts editing the prefix .reg file directly didn't work. Maybe a typo.

[Software\\Wow6432Node\\Electronic Arts\\SPORE_EP1]
"AddOnID"=dword:00000002
"DataDir"="Z:\\home\\rdelfin\\.steam\\debian-installation\\steamapps\\common\\Spore\\Data"
"PackID"=dword:28448390

This recommended fix is actually wrong.
In a regular Windows install, the SPORE_EP1 DataDir key holds the path to Spore GA's Data folder - which, when installed from Steam, is the DataEP1 folder in Spore's root directory.
This matches with what the person said about the Galactic Adventures expansion only working once the Data packages were copied to DataEP1, too.