Spore.

[Mario]

Here is the official Spore readme file.

Readme for Spore(tm)
(c)2008 Electronic Arts Inc. All Rights Reserved.

MAXIS(tm) 9/01/08
Version 1.0

== Table of Contents ==
General
System Requirements
Known Hardware Issues
Performance Tips
Notes
Controls and Shortcuts
Compatibility Notes


GENERAL
=======

Welcome to Spore! We hope you'll have a lot of fun with it.
For the latest up-to-date information on the game and
associated products, please visit

http://www.spore.com


System Requirements
===================

Spore requires at least the following:

FOR WINDOWS XP
* 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
* 512 MB RAM
* A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
* The latest version of DirectX 9.0c
* Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1
* At least 4 GB of hard drive space, with at least 1 GB
additional space for creations

FOR WINDOWS VISTA
* 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
* 768 MB RAM
* A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
* At least 4 GB of hard drive space, with at least 1 GB
additional space for creations.

For computers using built-in graphics chipsets under Windows,
the game requires at least:
* Intel Integrated Chipset, 945GM or above.
* 2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent.
* 768 MB RAM

FOR MAC OS X
* Mac OS X 10.5.3 Leopard or higher
* Intel Core Duo Processor
* 1024 MB RAM
* ATI X1600 or Nvidia 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM, or
Intel Integrated GMA X3100.
* At least 4 GB of hard drive space, with at least 1 GB
additional space for creations.

This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems, or
the GMA 950 class of integrated video cards.


Supported Video Cards
---------------------

NVIDIA GeForce series
FX 5900, FX 5950
6200, 6500, 6600, 6800,
7200, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950
8400, 8500, 8600, 8800
9600, 9800, GTX 260, GTX 280

ATI Radeon(TM) series
9500, 9600, 9800
X300, X600, X700, X800, X850
X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950
2400, 2600, 2900,
3450, 3650, 3850, 3870,
4850

Intel(R) Extreme Graphics
Windows: GMA 950, GMA 3x00 series
Mac OS X: GMA X3100

Laptop versions of these chipsets may work, but may run
comparatively slower. Standalone cards that are installed in
vanilla PCI slots (not PCIe or PCIx or AGP), such as some
GeForce FX variants, will perform poorly. Intel integrated
chipsets featuring underclocked parts, such as the 945GU, GML,
and GMS, will not perform adequately.

Integrated chipsets such as the ATI Xpress and the NVIDIA
TurboCache variants will have low settings selected, but
should run satisfactorily.

Please note that attempting to play the game using video
hardware that isn’t listed above may result in reduced
performance, graphical issues or cause the game to not
run at all.

The NVIDIA GeForce FX series is unsupported under Vista.


Known Hardware Issues
=====================

The game may become unresponsive while painting your creature,
or after switching between fullscreen and windowed. To fix
this, update your graphics drivers from the vendor website.

When changing the display size, in some situations the
monitor may not respond to a resolution it claims to support,
showing a black or distorted display. If this occurs switch
to windowed mode, and then change the resolution and
refresh rate back to smaller values.

Audio hardware acceleration is unsupported.

Windows Vista:
When launching the game, some Microsoft Vista users may
receive a warning about running out of address space along
with a link to the Microsoft Knowledge Base. If you see this
message, it is recommended that you follow the instructions
and go to the website listed in the message to update
your system.

Turtle Beach Montego DDL - Surround 5.1 is not supported.
This mode is available in the options, but sound will be
in Stereo (2 Channel) for all speakers.

Mac OS X:
On Mac OS X systems that have NVIDIA cards with less than
256 MB of VRAM, you may need to reduce the graphics quality
through the methods described in General Troubleshooting
for improved graphics quality.

If running the game on a Mac Book Pro with display mirroring
turned on, ensure that you select a resolution which is
supported by both the internal and external displays.
A workaround for this issue is to ensure that the internal
LCD is the main system monitor before turning on display
mirroring, and you will be presented with the proper
resolutions.

Occasionally the game audio will stop playing when headphones
are connected after the game is started. In order to prevent
this from occurring, please ensure that your headphones are
connected to your Mac before starting the game.

If you experience frame rate issues while running on ATI X1600
or X1900 cards, reduce your Lighting Quality setting to low.


Performance Tips
================

When you run Spore for the first time, the game will
automatically select the most appropriate options for your
graphics card, CPU, and audio card. To improve performance,
use the options control panel to lower settings to
"medium" or "low".

You can also improve the performance of the game by
lowering the resolution the game runs at, to 1024 x 768
or 800 x 600. It is not recommended that you run at
fullscreen resolution if your monitor resolution has a
height or width of 1600 or larger.

Spore is a real-time 3D game that requires the majority of
your computer's processing power. Other programs operating in
the background may slow it down or cause hitches. For best
results, be sure to close any background applications while
playing Spore.

Fullscreen performance is generally better than windowed
performance.


Notes
=====

Spore Error Messages
--------------------

Below are some error and warning messages you may see from the
game, along with suggestions for fixing them.

1000: Another instance of Spore is already running. Please
quit or kill it first.

1001: The game cannot find any valid display modes. Please
ensure your display is set to 32 bits.

1002: Direct X is not installed. Please install it, or reinstall
the game.

1004: The game cannot find its data directory. Please reinstall
the game.

1010 It is recommended that you update your graphics card
drivers to avoid compatibility issues. Generally you can
do this by going to the website of the hardware manufacturer
for your card. The sites for NVIDIA, ATI, and Intel are:

http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp
http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html
http://support.intel.com/support/graphics/

1011: It is required that you upgrade your graphics card drivers
to avoid serious issues with the game. Please see above.

1012: The game has issues with this card in multi GPU mode. Please
either update your drivers, or disable multi GPU mode from
the vendor's control panel.

2001: The system is below our min spec, and we cannot run at all.

2002: The system is below our min spec, and you may experience
graphical, performance, or audio issues.

2003: You are running a version of Vista that has issues with
graphics cards with large amounts of VRAM. Please either
update to SP1, or install the corresponding fix from

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/940105



Online Help
-----------

The Electronic Arts Customer Support site is located at

http://support.ea.com

for North American users or

http://eusupport.ea.com

for European users.

Use the search tools to find the information you need. The
Knowledge Base is updated as new information becomes available,
so check back for the latest news and information.


Installing the Game
-------------------

Windows (disc users):
* Insert the disc into your disc drive and follow the on-screen instructions.
* Once the game has installed you can launch it by locating the game
through the Start menu.
* Games on Windows Vista™ are located in the Start > Games menu and on
earlier versions of Windows™ in the Start > Programs (or All Programs) menu.

Windows (EA Store users):
* Once the game has been downloaded by EA Download Manager, click the install
icon that appears and follow the on-screen instructions.
* Launch the game (once it is installed) directly from the EA Download Manager.

In Windows Vista Classic Start menu style, games are located in the
Start > Programs > Games > Games Explorer menu.

Mac OS X:
* Insert the game disc into your CD/DVD-ROM drive. A CD icon
representing the game disc appears on your desktop. Double-
click the icon to open the game’s launcher.
* Select the game’s installer icon at the bottom of the
launcher to prompt the installation menu.
* Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the
installation.


Digital Retail Installation
---------------------------

Please contact the digital retailer through whom you purchased
this game for instructions on how to install the game or how
to download and reinstall another copy of the game.

Note: If you’d like additional information about your game as
well as tips and patches please visit http://www.ea.com or
http://www.eastore.com.


Uninstalling the Game
---------------------

Windows XP:
* Open Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel.
* Click on Change or Remove Programs.
* Click on the SPORE program entry.
* Click on the Remove button.
* Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the
uninstallation.

Windows Vista:
* Open the Programs and Features control panel.
* Click on the SPORE program entry.
* Click on the Uninstall button.
* Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the
uninstallation.

Mac OS X:
* Ensure you are logged in using an account which has
Administrative privileges.
* Delete the SPORE folder from your Applications folder.
* Additional files can be found in
/Users/<Username>/Library/Preferences/Spore Preferences
* To remove the content created by Spore, remove the folder
/Users/<Username>/Documents/My Spore Creations

Locations On Disk
-----------------

Spore keeps your creatures, movies, pictures,
and animated avatars in a folder called "My Spore Creations".
The location of this folder depends on your OS:

Windows XP:
* "My Spore Creations" is located in your "My Documents" folder.

Windows Vista:
* "My Spore Creations" is located in your “Documents” folder.

Mac OS X:
* "My Spore Creations" is located in your “Documents” folder.

Spore also keeps a cache of the graphics assets for pollinated
content you have downloaded. If you are short on disk space,
try reducing the size of that cache in the graphics options.


Controls and Shortcuts
======================

- Creature Creator -

Left Click to select and move parts.

Left Click to move the arrow-shaped handles on the currently
selected part, which changes its shape.

Left Click and drag parts off the creature to sell them back.

Mouse over a part or a spine segment and use the mousewheel to
scale the size. Or, select the part, and use the up and down
arrow keys.

Hold Alt while clicking and dragging a part to copy it. On
Mac systems, use Option instead of Alt.

Left Click and drag directly on the spine to change the spine
shape. Use the arrows to length or shorten the spine.

Left Click on the torso skin (not the spine) to move it.

Hold Control while dragging a limb segment to attach it to
another limb.

Hold Tab when a part is selected to reveal additional rotation
handles.


- Building Creator -

To move a part vertically, press and hold Control while you click
a part and reposition it with your mouse.

To move a part across the surface of the dais, press and hold
Shift while you click a part and reposition it with your mouse.


- Vehicle Creator -

Body and cockpit parts automatically align down the center of the vehicle.

There are limits to the height and width of any vehicle.

To move the entire vehicle, press and hold Shift while moving the mouse.


- Camera -

Left Click on the background moves the camera around.

In test drive, mousewheel zooms the camera in and out.

In build and paint modes, shift and mousewheel zooms the
camera in and out.

< and > Rotates the camera
+ and - Zooms in or out

- General -

Control-N Start New
Control-Y Redo
Control-Z Undo
Control-S Save
Control-H Toggle whether the UI is hidden
H or ? Bring up or close the Spore Guide
B Bring up the Sporepedia™

Windows:
Alt-Enter Toggle between windowed and fullscreen modes.

Mac OS X:
Command-Return Toggle between windowed and fullscreen modes.
Command-Tab Minimize the game when in fullscreen mode.

Note that when the game is minimized, it will not pause,
but will continue running in the background.


- Right Mouse Button Functionality on Mac OS X -

This game contains features that require a right mouse button.
If you have an Apple Mighty Mouse, you can enable the Right
Mouse Button in System Preferences->Keyboard and Mouse. Change
the "Right Click" drop down to Secondary Button.

To emulate the clicking of both buttons simultaneously using the
Apple Mighty Mouse, hold down the scroll button or click the left
mouse button while holding down the Command and Option keys.

As well, most PC USB mice are supported on the Macintosh.*
The Left and Right mouse buttons are detected and work
correctly on these mice when first plugged in.

If you have an Apple legacy single button mouse, or a MacBook
Pro with a Track Pad, you can emulate a right mouse button
click by holding down the Command key while clicking the mouse
button.

To emulate the clicking of both buttons simultaneously using a
single button mouse, hold down the Command and Option keys while
clicking the mouse button.

Command Line Options
--------------------

The following command-line options are supported:
-w Run in windowed mode.
-f Run in fullscreen mode.
-r:<width>x<height>
Run at the given resolution.
-safe Force a minimum set of configuration options, and
don't load any optional plugins.


Cheats
------

To enter cheats in the game, first open the command console by
simultaneously pressing ctrl-shift-c. Press the enter button
to close the command console. Some of the cheats that can be
used here are as follows:

help: lists all the cheats in the game.
help [cheatname]: displays specific information about the cheat.
quit: quit game.


Compatibility Notes
===================

Spore is designed to run on Windows XP compatible graphics and
sound cards. Drivers for these devices are provided by the
respective card manufacturer and may result in compatibility
issues beyond our control.

If you are experiencing any issues, it is always recommended
that you obtain and install the latest drivers for your
hardware. The majority of hardware vendors have the latest
drivers available for download via their websites.


More information on known technical issues is available at
http://www.spore.com.

Thanks for playing Spore!
The 'Spore' Team
MAXIS