Spore Woes

I'm having the same problem. I can usually get it to work by killing one or the other process, but haven't been able to figure out how to do it consistently, which would give me a clue about what the problem was. When the game launches and hangs, I see this in the logs:

9/15/08 10:27:19 PM tgUpdate[417] Launching "/Applications/_Games/SPORE/SPORE.app/Contents/MacOS/cider" -psn &
9/15/08 10:27:19 PM com.apple.launchd[291] ([0x0-0x35035].com.transgaming.spore[417]) Stray process with PGID equal to this dead job: PID 419 PPID 1 cider


This happens under 10.5.4 and 10.5.5

same here… The game launches to a black screen, I can hear the HD working for 10 secs, then back to Finder (I can see the screen resolution had been changed)… I did try several directories… same symptoms. Any help ?

The report says :
Process: cider [6647]
Path: /Applications/SPORE/SPORE.app/Contents/MacOS/cider
Identifier: com.transgaming.spore
Version: 1.0 Mac (1)
Build Info: Cider-1.0~1.0
Code Type: X86 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [1]

Date/Time: 2008-09-23 15:10:48.241 +0200
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.5.5 (9F33)
Report Version: 6

Exception Type: EXC_CRASH (SIGILL)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000
Crashed Thread: 0

Thread 0 Crashed:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x949ce5c6 mach waituntil + 10
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x94a461e5 nanosleep + 314
2 libSystem.B.dylib 0x94a460a5 usleep + 61
3 libsdldrv.dylib 0x65365131 SDLDRV_MainThreadEventLoop + 28
4 cider 0x80004bac -[WineMain applicationDidFinishLaunching:] + 115
5 com.apple.Foundation 0x92c642dc nsnotecallback + 364
6 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x96c6baba __CFXNotificationPost + 362
7 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x96c6bd93 _CFXNotificationPostNotification + 179
8 com.apple.Foundation 0x92c61440 -[NSNotificationCenter postNotificationName:object:userInfo:] + 128
9 com.apple.Foundation 0x92c6ac88 -[NSNotificationCenter postNotificationName:object:] + 56
10 com.apple.AppKit 0x91c8ea62 -[NSApplication _postDidFinishNotification] + 125
11 com.apple.AppKit 0x91c8e971 -[NSApplication _sendFinishLaunchingNotification] + 77
12 com.apple.AppKit 0x91c08517 -[NSApplication(NSAppleEventHandling) _handleAEOpen:] + 284
13 com.apple.AppKit 0x91c07d10 -[NSApplication(NSAppleEventHandling) _handleCoreEvent:withReplyEvent:] + 98
14 com.apple.Foundation 0x92c897ff -[NSAppleEventManager dispatchRawAppleEvent:withRawReply:handlerRefCon:] + 655
15 com.apple.Foundation 0x92c8950f _NSAppleEventManagerGenericHandler + 223
16 com.apple.AE 0x923c5648 aeDispatchAppleEvent(AEDesc const*, AEDesc*, unsigned long, unsigned char*) + 144
17 com.apple.AE 0x923c557e dispatchEventAndSendReply(AEDesc const*, AEDesc*) + 44
18 com.apple.AE 0x923c5425 aeProcessAppleEvent + 177
19 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x957bab61 AEProcessAppleEvent + 38
20 com.apple.AppKit 0x91c05601 _DPSNextEvent + 1189
21 com.apple.AppKit 0x91c04ca0 -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 128
22 com.apple.AppKit 0x91bfdcdb -[NSApplication run] + 795
23 cider 0x80007df6 main + 3924
24 cider 0x80001102 _start + 216
25 cider 0x80001029 start + 41

I have two week-old 24" iMac 3.06 machines. On one, no problem. On the other, I get the double icon mess. When I kill the icon on the right (the one that needs a "force quit"), it takes several times before it closes, then the game loads. Very frustrating. I'm calling EA at 11AM EST (they are on the US West Coast and open at 8AM PST). If they shed some light, I'll post back. Also, on the EA UK spore forum, others have the same problem. One said it had to do with Creature Creator, but others (like me) did not install that program. Arghhhh...

I found the incompatibility here : Joesoft Hear 1.02. As soon as I removed it, Spore launched and so far the game runs smoothly even with full options on at 1920x1200.

Interesting....I'll see if I have any audio programs that might be the problem (I had ported a G5 through Time Machine to this new iMac). I called EA and they were clueless on this problem. I'm awaiting a call/email....I'm not holding my breath. The tech said to uninstall and reinstall....I may try it.

Problem solved for me. I installed spore at the same time on two new iMac 3.06 24" machines. On one, no problem, on the other, the duplicate launch problem. I noticed that when I installed it on the "good" machine, it loaded 79 of 90 files and said 13 minutes remained, but on the "bad" machine, it was 28 minutes. I saved the game date on the "bad" machine, uninstalled it and reinstalled it. Again, it got to 79 of 90 files and said 28 minutes. The problem persisted. I uninstalled it again and reinstalled it but this time, when it got to 79 of 90 files, it said only 13 minutes remained. I launched it and it downloaded a patch (the other machine did it as well) and the dual launch problem seems to have vanished. Why? No idea. Strange...

I'm having a worse problem. When I start spore, it will ask for an update, if I agree to download it, it will take like 10 min downloading and then get stuck in "validating" and make me "Force Quit" it. If I say no to the update the game will just freeze and won't respond again.

Any ideas???

Hi MrJackInc;

Your problem is different then the problem posted by the OP, you should really start your own thread for it rather highjacking on to this thread.

Allan

I have the same on a brand new iMac... "get the double icon mess" and force quitting works but that's not an answer. Anyone find out anymore information on this. Going through my 3rd reinstall. I works fine on my Macbook Pro - no double icon. NAy help/links would be great. Thank you. -abz.