Jump to content




User Feedback

Recommended Comments

There's an even newer version 1.45.20 available now too (newer than the one above from SirYodaJedi): https://fichiers.touslesdrivers.com/61925/Creative_ALchemy_1.45.20.zip

Oddly enough I can't find this on the Creative website, but it seems to be legit, all files have a Creative digital signature etc. Seems it was released around May/July 2019.

Apparent changes (from this page: https://www.touslesdrivers.com/index.php?v_page=23&v_code=61925&v_langue=en)

Quote

- Updated the dsound.dll library to version 2.4.2.18.
- Support for Sound Blaster AE-7 and Sound Blaster AE-9 sound cards.

 

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

I tried to create a patch for 1.45.20 using MST's diff on 1.40.03, sadly, it doesn't work.

Someone with better skills than mine would have to look into it sadly.

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

@camm I made a generic patcher for Alchemy a while back, only posted it on one forum though so it was probably pretty easy to miss...

Reposted here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/387vesqfe7o91f4/GenericALchemyDerestrictor-1.0.zip/file
Only tested with the 1.45.20 version, but it uses signature searching rather than offsets so should work with other versions too.

(hopefully this is fine to post here, seeing as the Glossary:Sound_card page links to similar patches too)

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, infogram said:

@camm I made a generic patcher for Alchemy a while back, only posted it on one forum though so it was probably pretty easy to miss...

Reposted here: https://bayfiles.com/7fWdi8N4o0/GenericALchemyDerestrictor-1.0_zip
Only tested with the 1.45.20 version, but it uses signature searching rather than offsets so should work with other versions too.

(hopefully this is fine to post here, seeing as the Glossary:Sound_card page links to similar patches too)

Many thanks infogram, and you are correct, in my last few days of searching I didn't come across your patch anywhere.

After looking at your source code though, I'm feeling pretty dumb after my efforts from yesterday though :P.

Again, many thanks however :).

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/16/2020 at 12:07 AM, infogram said:

@camm I made a generic patcher for Alchemy a while back, only posted it on one forum though so it was probably pretty easy to miss...

Reposted here: https://bayfiles.com/7fWdi8N4o0/GenericALchemyDerestrictor-1.0_zip
Only tested with the 1.45.20 version, but it uses signature searching rather than offsets so should work with other versions too.

(hopefully this is fine to post here, seeing as the Glossary:Sound_card page links to similar patches too)

WARNING DOWNLOAD IS FULL OF TROJANS AND BUNDLES SOFTWARE AND GOODNESS KNOWS WHAT ELSE. I just had to disinfect my computer. It's a Flash installer downloader (at least that's the graphics it uses). Do not click !

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/21/2021 at 3:40 PM, michael z freeman said:

WARNING DOWNLOAD IS FULL OF TROJANS AND BUNDLES SOFTWARE AND GOODNESS KNOWS WHAT ELSE. I just had to disinfect my computer. It's a Flash installer downloader (at least that's the graphics it uses). Do not click !

Well I never put anything like that in there, not sure how that happened to you. Maybe the host is swapping the files or something like that, I just checked and it seemed to download fine for me at least, could it have been an ad that downloaded it?

The real download contains an ALchemyPatch.exe, readme.txt & src folder, if anyone finds something else is being downloaded please let me know.

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please is there any chance you could mirror this somewhere else, I was not able to get the download to work either, just constant popups, malware redirects etc etc, would be much appreciated.

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/15/2020 at 6:07 PM, infogram said:

@camm I made a generic patcher for Alchemy a while back, only posted it on one forum though so it was probably pretty easy to miss...

Reposted here: https://bayfiles.com/7fWdi8N4o0/GenericALchemyDerestrictor-1.0_zip
Only tested with the 1.45.20 version, but it uses signature searching rather than offsets so should work with other versions too.

(hopefully this is fine to post here, seeing as the Glossary:Sound_card page links to similar patches too)

Just Wanted to say thank you very much for this. The only de restrictor for Alchemy I've been able to find for a long time was for a much much older version. This works perfectly!

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/16/2020 at 1:07 AM, infogram said:

@camm I made a generic patcher for Alchemy a while back, only posted it on one forum though so it was probably pretty easy to miss...

Reposted here: https://bayfiles.com/7fWdi8N4o0/GenericALchemyDerestrictor-1.0_zip
Only tested with the 1.45.20 version, but it uses signature searching rather than offsets so should work with other versions too.

(hopefully this is fine to post here, seeing as the Glossary:Sound_card page links to similar patches too)

I don't know why, but when I used this ALchemy doesn't allow me to add any games anymore.

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/12/2021 at 4:55 AM, idk said:

I don't know why, but when I used this ALchemy doesn't allow me to add any games anymore.

What version of ALchemy are you using? If you can't add a game, it might be because you have selected Registry Path instead of Game Path.

By the way, I've uploaded all of the publicly available versions of Creative ALchemy I could find: https://archive.org/details/creative-alchemy-all-versions

infograms' generic patcher seems to only work with 1.45.xx versions.

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/17/2021 at 10:21 PM, mrpenguinb said:

What version of ALchemy are you using? If you can't add a game, it might be because you have selected Registry Path instead of Game Path.

By the way, I've uploaded all of the publicly available versions of Creative ALchemy I could find: https://archive.org/details/creative-alchemy-all-versions

infograms' generic patcher seems to only work with 1.45.xx versions.

Oh wow, nice collection, had a quick look at an older version, seems 1.43.20 at least uses some kind of protection on both dsound.dll & Alchemy.exe, PEiD says that it's SafeDisc/SafeCast 2.80.012, seems the code for checking HW which we have to patch over is all obfuscated/encrypted in some way, can find some strings used by that func, but no idea about the func itself 😞

Not really sure how to get around something like that, I guess it'd need a SafeDisc/SafeCast 2.80.012 unpacker, but haven't been able to find one yet...

Good thing they stopped using it for 1.45.xx 🙂

E: hmm looking into it more, it kinda looks like ALchemy has a backdoor of sorts, if it's able to load the file "C:\Windows\SysWOW64\CTMBHA.dll" then it seems to skip a bunch of HW checks.

Maybe copying a small DLL like "C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Version.dll" and naming it that could work, doesn't seem like it does any other checks on the file, just need to make sure it's the same kind of CPU as ALchemy itself (only ever 32-bit I think?)

In 1.45.20 both ALchemy.exe & dsound.dll have checks for that file, in 1.43.20 I only saw it mentioned inside dsound.dll though, not sure about ALchemy.exe, but could have just been obfuscated somehow.

I'm not completely sure this backdoor code actually gets used or not though, don't have a way to test it out right now, would appreciate if anyone can try it and see if it works with a non-patched ALchemy.

(also on 32-bit windows it might need to go inside System32 instead of SysWOW64)

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

I fixed it by deleting the contents of the ini file, but you should back it up because it has some game specific settings for some games.

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/20/2021 at 11:14 PM, infogram said:

Oh wow, nice collection, had a quick look at an older version, seems 1.43.20 at least uses some kind of protection on both dsound.dll & Alchemy.exe, PEiD says that it's SafeDisc/SafeCast 2.80.012, seems the code for checking HW which we have to patch over is all obfuscated/encrypted in some way, can find some strings used by that func, but no idea about the func itself 😞

Not really sure how to get around something like that, I guess it'd need a SafeDisc/SafeCast 2.80.012 unpacker, but haven't been able to find one yet...

Good thing they stopped using it for 1.45.xx 🙂

E: hmm looking into it more, it kinda looks like ALchemy has a backdoor of sorts, if it's able to load the file "C:\Windows\SysWOW64\CTMBHA.dll" then it seems to skip a bunch of HW checks.

Maybe copying a small DLL like "C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Version.dll" and naming it that could work, doesn't seem like it does any other checks on the file, just need to make sure it's the same kind of CPU as ALchemy itself (only ever 32-bit I think?)

In 1.45.20 both ALchemy.exe & dsound.dll have checks for that file, in 1.43.20 I only saw it mentioned inside dsound.dll though, not sure about ALchemy.exe, but could have just been obfuscated somehow.

I'm not completely sure this backdoor code actually gets used or not though, don't have a way to test it out right now, would appreciate if anyone can try it and see if it works with a non-patched ALchemy.

(also on 32-bit windows it might need to go inside System32 instead of SysWOW64)

Just curious. Is there any reason to use a version like "1.45.03 Universal" over just using the latest version (as of right now 1.45.20)? Just wondering what "Universal" means really. I've been using 1.45.20 and for the few games I use it on (Condemned, Max Payne 2 etc) it's been fine.

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, sean8102 said:

Just curious. Is there any reason to use a version like "1.45.03 Universal" over just using the latest version (as of right now 1.45.20)? Just wondering what "Universal" means really. I've been using 1.45.20 and for the few games I use it on (Condemned, Max Payne 2 etc) it's been fine.

Do you have a Creative sound card installed? If you do, then using ALchemy Universal is not needed.

If you don't have a Creative sound card installed, then using the latest version of ALchemy Universal is recommended since it officially supports Windows 10.

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nope, just on board Realtek audio. I'll go ahead and replace 1.45.20 with the newest universal version from your archive. Thank you for the info.

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Add a comment...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...