Emmanuel's Blog

Here are the instructions on how to add saved Spore games to your Live Mesh so you can play any saved game from any of your computer.  First, let's start with the basics - how you can manually copy a Spore game from one computer to another.

How to manually copy a Spore game

1. Copy the folder "\My Documents\My Spore Creations" from the old computer to new computer.
2. Copy the "Spore" folder from the old computer to new computer - you'll find this folder in different places depending on your operating system:

In Windows XP
\Documents and Settings\(Username)\Application Data\SPORE

In Vista
\Users\(Username)\AppData\Roaming\SPORE

Note: the Application Data directory may be hidden. To display hidden files: in the menu Tools->Folder Options->View, check "Show Hidden Files and Folders"

3. Start Spore on the new computer - you should be able to play your saved games!

If you want to continue playing the game on the old computer, you'll need to execute the steps above from the new computer to the old computer.  Unless, you use my tip below, adding both computers to your Live Mesh - in this case, all of the copying is done for you automatically and you can play any saved Spore game on any of your computers at any time.

How to use Live Mesh to play saved Spore games across multiple computers

So I can write exact instructions, let's suppose we own four computers:

• DESKTOPHOME1 - a desktop at home
• LAPTOPHOME2 - a laptop at home
• DESKTOPWORK3 - a desktop at work
• LAPTOPWORK4 - a laptop at work

The first time you set this up you need to determine which will be your "master" computer.  As we set up the Spore folders on the Live Mesh, the saved games will be copied from the "master" computer to all other computers.  This should be the computer where you last played Spore, where you have your most recent saved Spore games - I'll suppose in our scenario that it's DESKTOPHOME1.

On DESKTOPHOME1 (the "master"):

1. Install Spore (it should already be installed if you have saved games).  Run Spore once but make sure you're not running it while executing this setup.
2. Sign up and install Live Mesh, then sign-in.  Watch my screencast for more details if needed.
3. Add the folders to your Live Mesh -
1. Right click on the "\My Documents\My Spore Creations" folder and choose "Add folder to your Live Mesh".
1. Under "Show Synchronization options" make sure you have:
1. Device: Live Desktop; Synchronize Files: when files are added or modified.
2. Device: DESKTOPHOME1; Synchronize Files: when files are added or modified.
3. Device: LAPTOHOME2 (or all others);  Synchronize Files: Never with this device (we are going to do it later).
2. Right click on the "Spore" folder and choose "Add folder to your Live Mesh".  Define the same synchronization options as above.

On LAPTOPHOME2

1. Install Spore.  Run it once but make sure you're not running Spore when executing these steps.
2. Delete all files and folders -
1. in the "\My Documents\My Spore Creations" folder
2. In  the "Spore" folder.  Notes: 
1. We delete these files and folders to save us some headaches - if the same file is added on two or more devices of your Live Mesh, there will be a conflict and you'll need to manually choose which one you want to keep.  By deleting the files we allow Live Mesh to simply copy the files from DESKTOPHOME1 to LAPTOPHOME2 the first time the folders are synched up.
2. Make sure that the saved games your care about are on DESKTOPHOME1 - that's the reason we can delete the contents of these folders on LAPTOPHOME2.
3. Make sure you haven't yet added these folders to your Live Mesh on LAPTOPHOME2 (you shouldn't have, but just in case).
4. Once we've done this once, we no longer will need to delete or copy files and folder manually - we only do this once.
3. Sign up and install Live Mesh, then sign-in.  Watch my screencast for more details if needed.
4. Add the folders to your Live Mesh.  Right click-on the Live Mesh icon in the tray and choose "Show Notifier" and you should see the "Live Mesh Tech Preview" window.  Click on the third option (a blue folder) and you should see a list of your Live Mesh folders -
1. Click on the "SPORE" folder.
2. Live Mesh will default the location of this folder to your desktop; change the location
1. In Windows XP: \Documents and Settings\(Username)\Application Data\SPORE
2. In Windows Vista: \Users\(Username)\AppData\Roaming\SPORE
3. Click OK

Repeat the above for the "\My Documents\My Spore Creations" folder.  In the Live Mesh Notifier, click on the third option (a blue folder) and you should see a list of your Live Mesh folders -

1. Click on the "My Spore Creations" folder.
2. Live Mesh will default the location of this folder to your desktop; change the location to "\My Documents\My Spore Creations".
3. Click OK

That's it!  After a few moments you should see all of your saved games automatically copied from DESKTOPHOME1 to LAPTOPHOME2 (you should see a bunch of files and folders in "\Documents and Settings\(Username)\Application Data\SPORE" on LAPTOPHOME2).  If DESKTOPHOME1 and LAPTOPHOME2 are on the same network (LAN), the files will appear extremely fast since Live Mesh will be copying them "peer to peer" (directly from one computer to the other).  If DESKTOPHOME1 and LAPTOPHOME2 are connected through the Internet, it will depend on your upload and download speeds.

Execute the above 4 steps on DESKTOPWORK3, LAPTOPWORK4, or any other computer you'd like to play saved Spore games on.

Additional Notes:

1. Make sure you choose the correct "master" computer before you start - that's the one with all of your saved games where you've been playing Spore on.  Before you start make a backup of the two folders above - just in case something goes wrong.
2. Only run Spore on one computer at a time - otherwise you'll have conflicts where you'll have two versions of the same file on your Live Mesh - and you'll need to make a decision on which one you'll keep.  It's a good idea to wait a bit before starting Spore on another computer, so you allow Live Mesh to copy the saved games from the last computer you've played on to the others.
3. There is not auto-save in Spore and it's my experience that Spore crashes every once in a while - so use the keyboard shortcut CTRL-S in Spore often to save a game (note: once I lowered my resolution to 1024x768 I got less crashes).  Don't use CTRL-S right after doing a CTRL-S - give Live Mesh some time to copy the files before you save again; otherwise you may get an error when Spore tries to updated the saved games.
4. Notice that even if someone steals your laptop and then your desktop hard drive crashes that you have a backup of all of your saved games on the Live Desktop - sweet, an automatic backup!

Disclaimer

You do this at your own risk.  It's working for me, but if you do the wrong thing and overwrite the wrong files you may delete saved games, crash Spore or create a black-hole that will destroy the Universe.