Spore Bot Parts Pack

On January 4th 2010 Spore.com announced there would be 14 new mech-style robot parts for the Creature Creator, provided as part of Patch 1.06. This special give away is only available with a code that is specially marked on Dr. Pepper bottles (under the cap), Or at Participating Taco Bell resturaunts with any order of a large drink. Once the code is found it must be entered on the Dr. Pepper website here. The offer is only open to residents of the USA (excluding Maine) and is Mac incompatible.

This can also be downloaded at Simprograms.com

Features
The Pack contains 14 brand new Mechanical Parts for use in the Creature Creator.

Controversy
Ever since it was announced, the Mech Pack caused a great deal of controversy due to it being exclusive to residents of the USA, and the fact that the offer was limited to Dr. Pepper soft drinks. It has also been recently discovered that the pack contains the longly anticipated Patch 1.06, which only contributed to the controversy.

Soon after the announcement, many creations featured on the Most Popular New creations list demand the parts to be made into a patch, available for everyone around the world, PC and Mac and Steam users.

Due to the fact that you can't get the parts outside of the US, a pirated version has been floating around. The pirated version does not allow you to share your mech creations due to the game not registering you as actually having a serial for it.

Although each bottle clearly states that "Every Bottle Wins", it has been discovered that, although rare, some bottles indeed lack a code, adding ever so more to the controversy.

And to add even more to the arguments and frustration, the website at which the codes can be redeemed is currently down, temporarily disabling the ability to gain the parts. Users have even made adventures which takes place where "Dr. Pepper" is not sold, thus causing the adventure to instantly be lost. Several users have also made complaints and creations claiming that they will boycott EA.

After submitting a code, the Dr.pepper website will send you to a page on the spore.com site where you will be able to download the parts pack and (if you don't have it) the EA download manager. Sometimes, this screen will not have the download link attached to it, and sometimes it will, but when clicked on, your computer will be unable to display the page. Maxis has yet to say anything since the controversey began, so a way to fix this remains unknown.

Finally, after several weeks since the controversey began, The page on the official Spore Forum Now hold two messages reading:

Update (2/19): The issue with Dr Pepper parts not showing up in game should now be resolved. Thanks for bearing with us as we got a fix out.

Update (2/19): We are aware that Dr Pepper parts are not currently being correctly granted to players who redeem their codes. Thanks for your patience as we work to resolve this.

These messages are unkown to most players, yet the controversy has begun to shallow out.

An (uncomfirmed) way to fix this is to download the patch on an alternate computer, then it will be saved to your EA download manager. Then, you can download it without having to go to the website. However, it will only work for the username you downloaded the patch with, and it will lock if any other users attempt to download it.

Unused Bot Parts
It has been discovered here that there are in fact a total of 32 parts included in the Spore Bot Parts pack, yet only 14 of them are actually usable within the game. This may suggest that Maxis are working on a brand new patch that contains the extra 18 parts,which were most likely removed due to time constraints.

Trivia

 * Limbs appear to follow the same restrictions for attaching to other limbs as exoskeletal limb segments. They will attach to any limb type, but only exoskeletal and robot limbs will attach to them.


 * The mouth parts offered through the patch do not have the Sing ability. It is possible to make a creature with no social attributes by using these parts. However, attempting to socialise with them will crash your game, as they cannot respond.


 * All bot parts are unlocked at the beginning of the Creature Stage. Note that only Omnivores will have the jaws unlocked.


 * The mouths make the same noise as the amphibian mouths, but with a slight choppy/filter effect sound to make them sound more robotic.