Spore. By now I’m sure you’re familiar with this game, and the issues that come along with it - most specifically SecuRom.
Two of us here at ArsGeek have the game and so far we’re split 50/50 between issues and enjoyment.
I’ve had the game since release and have so far experienced no issues with it. This is the kind of game I enjoy, with a lot for the casual gamer and a lot for the hardcore gamer (space phase).
Cavtroop got the game at the same time, and ran in to the nasty DasmX86Dll.dll issue. What’s that? Well it looks like DasmX86Dll.dll is a part of Dasm32 - a debugger/disassembler. Basically this is a tool used to debug software. You can get it for free here if you want to check it out. What happens is, at some point the game crashes to the desktop with an error on that DLL. Why? It looks like EA/Maxis was a bit sloppy and left a reference to the debugger in their production code, which should not be in there. Thus, when the game wants to go into debug mode it crashes to the desktop.
Don’t think that installing Dasm32 will help though, it won’t. EA and Maxis need to release a patch for this. Until then, the only real work around seems to be. . . well, the one that we shouldn’t have to use. Others report that the pirated .exe works fine. It’s a pretty big problem when the pirated exe works better than the one shipped from EA. It’s not clear to me if this debug call is a SecuRom call, or one built into Spore itself. At a guess, it’s a SecuRom thing - once you remove SecuRom from the picture, no crash.
While I don’t advocate pirating anything, I just don’t have a moral issue with finding a cracked .exe for a game that I’ve already purchased, just to get the game to work. And not only do you have to do that for the game to work, but your running it at a reduced capacity - no online content for you!
There’s been talk of how hard it is to remove SecuRom in and of itself. I’ve found official instructions for doing this online at several sources, and I’ll reproduce them here in a cleaned up version so you know what to do. Obviously this will stop Spore from functioning properly for you. But if you have had SecuRom infected games installed on your PC and you no longer want to play them, here’s how to remove this software.
To remove all SecuROM related files (except the license data stored beneath the registry keys) please follow the uninstall instructions below.
Before you start the uninstall process, close all programs which are running in the background, especially be sure that no instance of the Windows Explorer is running.
Open the Windows command prompt.
type in the path of the infected executable:“C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\[Your game] (for example: The Sims 2 Bon Voyage)\TSBin\[Sims 2 .exe file] (for example: Sims2EP6.exe or Sims2SP5.exe)”
And append /uninstall to it.
So for Sims2EP6.exe, you would type C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\Sims 2\TSBin\Sims2EP6.exe /uninstall
A dialog box should then appear to start the SecuRom uninstall process.
The registry keys described above are not removed by the above uninstall process; otherwise, the copy protection function of SecuROM would be completely undermined. The registry keys, which contain license data, remain on your PC and do not affect any of your PC’s functions. This is no different than other commercially available software programs that employ a similar use of registry keys.
Note: These instructions will work only for applications protected with SecuROM version 7.24 or higher (The Sims 2 Bon Voyage uses version 7.33 of SecuROM, so the instructions do apply). If you have an earlier version of SecuROM, please contact support@securom.com for different instructions.
Speaking of SecuRom - I’m not quite sure why software companies continue to insist that DRM of this type (or any type) is worth it. I wonder how much money EA stuck into this? The game was available on the torrents before it’s official launch and yet here’s EA and far to many other companies shoveling money down the DRM hole.
And it’s doubly a problem because of their refusal to see this as an issue. If the game sells well, EA says “See! DRM isn’t that big a deal, people don’t care and we’re still selling games.” If the game’s sales are hurt by DRM they fall back on “Pirates are killing our bottom line!” Seriously? Games will get pirated, sure. But you’re much more likely to sell copies if they’re not crippled in the first place by software that does nothing to stop the pirates and everything to annoy legitimate users.
Think EA! How many more games would you sell to people if your Amazon ratings were 4 or 5 stars? How manyon the fence gamers wondering if they should plonk down $50 of their hard earned money are going to turn away from this? I like this game, I really do, but I had to give it a 1 star rating on Amazon as well because of the way legit users are treated like criminals and the folks who do steal the game get to play it whenever and wherever they want.
So what to do? Well obviously you can decide to not spend your money on this game. Even more important though, rather than pirate it which is still illegal, why not give your money to publishers who refuse to treat their customers as criminals in the first place? If PC gaming is a dying past time, it’s because of publishers who use DRM. If someone’s going to save it, it’s the folks below.
My favorite game company of all time, Stardock, has a number of good to great games out there right now, Sins of a Solar Empire being my current favorite video game period. They make good games, and their currently in the spotlight for refusing to use DRM, a commitement to ship a finished product and their gamers bill of rights. Impulse is also a neat client and is shaping up to be a real Steam competitor.
I’m glad to give them my money for a product that works, is fun and is DRM free.
The folks at Software, Technology and More have also gone through the trouble of compiling a great list of DRM free, indie games. Their top pick, Mount and Blade is a fantastic game and the rest, though I don’t have much experience with them, I’ll be checking out.
The bottom line - DRM sucks. It punishes the people doing the right thing by paying developers to develop, causing a lot of unecessary headaches among users and basically making us all feel like we’re just renting a game, not purchasing it. I hope that the mob of low ratings on Amazon sends EA and other publishers a message but I’m doubtful they’re even listening.
Technorati Tags: drm, spore, securom, video games, remove drm, ea, maxis, stardock, indie, games, geek, technology, computers
September 9th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
You know what else is great? Apparently EA even screwed up their own product key listings.
I bought the game yesterday, installed it using the product registration key from the box, only to find that when it came time to register with EA for the online content (which is really the only reason left to BUY the game), the product key was suddenly invalid.
There’s no toll free number to dial, at least none that I could find, so they make you call long distance to California (I assume) and, after talking to an electronic voice recognition system for several minutes that sucks beyond belief (”Spore” apparently sounds a lot like “Madden” in EA land), be placed on hold for over 15 minutes. Yeah, that’s cheap.
So I read off my product key to the cust svc guy and he reads it back. It doesn’t exist in their records.
So, what can I do?
I’m told I will need to scan my receipt and e-mail it to them as proof of purchase.
I don’t have a scanner.
I’m told I can go back to the store and exchange it for another copy.
I’m 4 beers into an 18 pack at this point, on top of the fact I got the last copy off the shelf, so this is not an option. But I call the retailer to see if I can even exchange it for this reason. NOPE! The product sold was not damaged or defective. It’s an electronic item, so it can’t be refunded. My problem is with EA’s online services, not the game itself.
Of course, I could just lie and say it’s damaged. Problem is I’M AN HONEST PERSON. That’s what’s pi**ing me off so bad. I have 4 other EA titles registered with their online services. Why on earth would I steal this title, and on top of that, call their customer service for help with my stolen product? Why would I try to register it if it’s stolen?! I wouldn’t have to! It’s just common sense.
So, I scanned the damn receipt and the “non-existent” product key when I got to work this morning and sent it to them. That was 4 hours ago and I haven’t heard a peep from EA.
And all this time, I can’t help but think about all the people who just gave EA the finger and stole the damn game. They’re $50 richer than me, having fun, and I, the paying customer, am being treated like a damn criminal, wasted over half an hour on the phone long distance, had to scan a receipt and am STILL waiting to play the game (I can run the game, btw, I just don’t want to until I have the version I paid for)…
September 9th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Yeah Jim, that certainly is a hassle. EA is also famous for their support, as it is.
It’s to bad because I do like this game. But I think this will be the last game I spend money on from a publisher that insists on draconian measures to secure their IP even when it’s available online for free before the actual game release.
There are a ton of games at the link in my post which are cheap, look fun and are DRM free. That may be where I’m headed next.
September 9th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Jim
That’s amazing. I’d be PISSED, and raising bloody hell in the store. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a defective product. If you scream loud enough, the manager will probably just cave.
Point is though, you shouldn’t have to.
I am also done with draconian DRM. This is the last $$$ EA will ever get out of me, at least until they ditch DRM, that’s for sure.
I’m having the .dll problems listed above - I’m convinced it a SecuRom problem, and the game is unplayable because of it.
So, the paying customer gets screwed, while the pirates get to play the game. Yeah, thats BRILLIANT
September 9th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Seven Cities of Gold. Mail Order Monsters. M.U.L.E.. Racing Destruction Set. Archon. Little Computer People. Lords of Conquest. And so on. Enthusiastic support of multiple platforms. Feel-good ads promising to make us cry one day. Somehow I didn’t think this is what they meant. I hate you for making me hate you, EA.
September 10th, 2008 at 9:16 am
300baud - WOW, what a list. EA used to ROCK, very sad what has become of them. Nasty DRM, releasing roster updates, and charging for a full game (Madden series anyone? HELL, they killed the PC version of Madden!).
Indie developers, here I come!
September 10th, 2008 at 11:06 am
“but your running it” — you’re.
September 10th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
They fixed it. My key had already been assigned to another EA account somehow. It was in the system, the previous tech must have entered it wrong, or lied to me. I got a lot of “wow, this is weird” but he wouldn’t tell me what the e-mail address was. All he had to do was reset it.
Why I needed to provide proof of purchase for that I have no idea. Also, I had to call them again. -sigh-
September 10th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
umm no… they removed secuROM kinda from spore it only authenticates when you download a patch now,but i guess when you install too so i just contradicted myself. Oh well i don’t have to pop the disk in every week i don’t care
September 11th, 2008 at 4:35 am
1. take omega’s graphic card DRIVER and install it.
2. and Run spore
3. don’t start game, Go Building make mode.
4. start game.
September 17th, 2008 at 9:39 am
For a game that has received SO much hype, SO much waiting, and actually has a LOT of things going for it, tripping up over a DRM issue is borderline ridiculous actually.
On the other hand…at least we know we’re not going to have these problems with Battlefield Heroes.
September 18th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
I am also done with draconian DRM. This is the last $$$ EA will ever get out of me, at least until they ditch DRM, that’s for sure.
September 21st, 2008 at 2:31 am
I found this artical reciently, that talks about EA and DRM, interesting amount the company lost due to putting DRM and users not wanting to buy the product:
http://www.neowin.net/news/gamers/08/09/20/ea-admits-spore-launch-botched-by-drm
Boz.
September 21st, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Interesting - I purchased the product and I am currently installing it on my system. Fortunately I live in Canada, where DRM laws have not yet been put into place (although our legislature is pushing it) so I have every legal right to make one backup copy of the game.
I think what really ticks me off the most, is that a lot of really great software companies were bought up by EA. Maxis, Bioware, Westwood, etc… and are now getting somewhat screwed over from the aftermath.
(Command and Conquer Generals could have been a rival to starcraft had EA decided not to up and abandon the product).
Thus, fortunately for me, I still have every legal right to crack the game and require it to function on my system without installing third party software. A pity I have to resort to it, thought. It makes me think “well if I’m going to crack this game, why am I bothering buying it in the first place?”
Ah well.
September 24th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
pff nothing wrong with pirating if you can’t afford it, it isn’t even really “pirating”it’s sharing, sharing is not wrong. If I had the money I’d buy it hell yes of course, to help out the developers but you know, some people live in poverty and are too fucked up to get jobs or a successful life because their family fucked them up. So I got nothing wrong with sharing games, it helps me escape from a reality that sucks ass.
They will never stop people from sharing, they will never get close. It is something that will be around forever and I am glad, this world needs to stop being so stingy and greedy. They probably made over 30million dollars on this game already, they aren’t needy so why they gotta come down on needy people who can’t afford it. 50 bucks for a game is ridiculous. if it were 15 bucks I’d buy it no problem, but they’re greedy. Being greedy is worse than being a “pirate” who just can’t afford it.
September 27th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
EA doesn’t care if you can play the game; all they want is for you to buy it. They are going out of there way to make sure you buy the game with all this DRM crap, but aren’t doing much to make sure you can play it. Once you gave them your 50$, you aren’t their problem anymore.
September 29th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
I have the same problem…
sorry to say this but my game isnt original, i downloaded it from piratebay xD
(Im from Mexico, the game was going to arrive at the end of september or in octuber :/ but anyway, im going to buy it later :D)
My game is pirated but it gets that error of “DasmX86Dll.dll was not found”
It crashes when I try to get from the tribal phase to the civilization phase.
I have 3 space phases games, 4 civilization phases and 2 tribal phases
I didnt have any issue with the other phases…
(except one time in the space phase: I was being attacked by the grox, so i enter to a solar system (I was able to buy it) then i enter to planet, While the game was loading the planet, I bought the solar system and the game froze xD)
So… should I buy the game or not? Is there a solution?
(Sorry for my english :P)
October 10th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
If you want to take your frustrations one step further, sign our petition at http://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/ea-games-without-drm-and-secu-rom to get EA to realize our frustrations with their decision to include DRM and SecuROM.
If you want to take it one step further, spread the word and help get others on board.
November 10th, 2008 at 12:05 am
So much EA hate around - Sorry but games on Steam and Impulse do have DRM - and yes even Securom-
Here is one example at Stardock
https://store.stardock.com/application.aspx?id=agebooty&theme=impulse
I do not think they mean for the Bill of Rights to apply to themselves.
Anyway, I am sorry people are having this issue with the DLL file but I do not think it has anything to do with non pirated copies or securom.
Hopefully the latest patch has helped or if people report this issue to the EA tech support it will get sorted in the next patch.
April 6th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Yeah DRM has got to go, all it does is punish legitimate users.
I bought Spore new not long after it was available in a sealed box at a Walmart. I installed it only to see my registration code is invalid.
I contact EA and they tell me my code is already linked to someone else’s email account.
How can my code already have been linked to someone else before I even bought the game?
Something really fishy going on there, yet EA refuses to take responsibility for fixing it.
May 29th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
them instructions for the securom removal does not remove securom 100% from your machine , it only removes the outer layer of registry files and a couple folders . the securom is still installed inside ring 0 and runs on its own still . your removal just removes game useage keys .
October 20th, 2009 at 4:55 am
GA is quite nice and it gives me a lot of money, but the rate is not very high.