Alchemy for Windows

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I have played recently a great game on Android, called Alchemy, created by Andrey Zaikin. You start with four basic elements, Fire, Water, Air and Earth and you can combine them to get more and more elements. The game was so catching that after finishing it I decided to write my own version for Windows. I chose WPF because I wanted to learn it and because I realized the stuff I wanted to create was too hard to do in MFC. This is my first real application in WPF, and what you see is the result of 4 days of work; in MFC it could have been 4 months, I believe.

You start with the four basic elements: air, earth, fire and water. You can combine them by dragging onto each other on the central area of the window, “the desktop”. When new elements are created they are added to one of the two lists from the left area. The top list has elements that can be combined again. The bottom list contains terminal elements, i.e. elements that can no longer be combined. You can drag elements from the non-terminals list back to the desktop area, but not from the terminals list.

You can quickly bring onto the desktop the four basic elements by double clicking on an empty area of it. Double clicking on an element from the desktop creates a duplicate of it. You can remove an element from the desktop by dragging it over the trash can icon. You can remove all the elements from the desktop by double clicking on the trash can.

When the number of elements gets too big scrolling through the list might be cumbersome. You can use the search textbox to filter the elements in the list. As you type only the elements that contain the typed text are displayed. It you press the X button of the textbox or clear its content, the list displays again all the unlocked elements.

On the right area of the window you find a help pane. When you select an element from one of the two lists on the left side, you can see a list of all the unlocked combinations in which the elements appears (either as input or output).

There are also several buttons: Cheat, Wikipedia, Help and About. Button Cheat opens a new window that displays the list of all available elements. So if you get stuck and don’t know what elements are left to discover you can cheat and see the list.

Button Wikipedia starts a search on Wikipedia for the currently selected element. Buttons Help and About display information about the game.

Note that your game progress is saved when you close the game and loaded when you start again. The information is stored in a file with your Windows user name and extension .aus. Don’t delete the file or you lose your game progress.

Here is the alphabetical list of all the 210 elements available in version 1.0:

Air Cochineal Gunpowder Ozone Soldier
Airplane Coffin Hippopotamus Panda Star
Alcohol Combustion engine Hourglass Paper Starfish
Algae Computer House Pearl Steam
Arable Concrete Hunter Penguin Steam engine
Arm Continent Hut Penicillin Steamer
Ash Corpse Hydrogen Perfume Stone
Assassin Country Ice Petroleum Storm
Bacteria Darth Vader Jedi Pie Sulfur
Barbeque Desert Kerogen Pinocchio Sun
Beach Diamond Knife Pizza Swamp
Bear Dinosaur Lava Planet Tequila
Beast Dough Library Plankton The Beatles
Beer Dragon Lichen Plesiosaur Thunderstorm
Beetle Dragonfly Life Poison Tiger
Bicycle Dust Light Poisoned weapon Time
Bird Earth Lightbulb Polar Bear Tom and Jerry
Bitumen Egg Lightsaber Pressure Tool
Boat Electricity Lime Pterosaur Tornado
Boiler Energy Limestone Radar Tortoise
Book Fern Livestock Radio Transistor
Bread Fire Lizard Rain Tree
Brick Firearm Locomotive Rainbow Turtle
Butterfly Fish Man Sand Uncut diamond
Cactus Fisherman Manure Santa claus Universe
Car Flour Meat Scarab Vodka
Carbon dioxide Flower Metal Scientist Volcano
Carmine Flu Milk Scissors Wagon
Cat Fly Mite Scorpion Warrior
Caviar Fondue Mold Seed Water
Cement Forest Monkey Shark Watermelon
Cheese Fossil Moon Shell Whale
Chicken Fruit Moss Silicon Wheat
Chip Fugu Motorboat Sith Wheel
Christmas tree Galaxy Motorcycle Sky Wind
City Gasoline Mouse Skyscraper Wine
Clay Geyser Mud Snail Wood
Cloth Ghost Mushroom Snake Wooden ship
Clothing Glass Ocean Snow Wool
Cloud Grape Old man Snowman Worm
Coal Grass Omelette Soda water Yeast
Coca cola Grove Oxygen Solar system Yogurt

Note: In order to run the game you need .NET framework 3.5 SP1.

Stay tuned, updates with more elements are coming!

Update: Download the latest version from here.

217 thoughts on “Alchemy for Windows”

  1. Pingback: Alchemy for Windows « hary.oktav’s Blog

  2. For touch screen user, it would be nice if some functions added, such as allowing to add multiple elements also to delete one element rather than deleting all elements in a single click. Thanks!

  3. Hi ! Thanks a lot, this is a great family game, the kids likes it as much as we do.

    There are two little mistakes in the french translation :
    “escrΓ©ment” is false, “excrΓ©ment” is the right orthograph
    “levure” doesn’t fit with the thing (you can translate in “yeast” in english), “tricot” (knitting) will be the right term

    I like the MrWallace’s suggestions and in a few seconds i’d say :
    woman + love = sex
    woman + sex = child
    man + sex = love
    man + love = diamond
    star wars + starship = x-wing
    robot + life = cyborg

    Are you looking for some more ideas ?

  5. Thanks for the Windows version! I really like seeing the combinations for the elements while I’m making new elements.

  6. Hello Marius,

    I am so glad I have finished the 444 elements in 10 hours! Thanks for the game, very nice.
    Do plan to upgrade with more elements? Do you accept suggestions for new elements?

    Thanks!
    Cheers,
    Maura

  7. Hello

    Great Game.

    I’m close to finish (442/444) but I’m stuck. I’m can’t find Ball and theater (Ball with eraser(I said eraser because it appears as Gomme in French) and theater with film)

    Could someone give me an indication without spoiler.

    Please. Thanks

  9. I am not responsible for the translations, I only coordinate them. I cannot guarantee for the accuracy of the translation, I don’t speak those languages. I recommend that if you have problems with something switch to English and try to figure the combination.

    On the other hand, there is no eraser, only rubber, so try that lead. As for Theater you are on the right track with film. Except that you should think of a theater as a cinema.

  10. Thanks

    You’re right it’s rubber and no eraser. I’ve found Theater with your indication. I’m always searching the last with rubber (to find Ball). When I’ll get it, I’ll have the 444 elements.

    I suggest some corrections with french translation : It’s excrement, pingouin, dioxide de carbone

    For Wheat, It’s blΓ© and no Recoltes and for Yarn, it’s Fil et non levure

  13. Hey…

    Great game, I have 487 elements. πŸ™‚

    HOWEVER, Switzerland still canΒ΄t be made. The clock is terminal, so I don’t know what to do with it.

    Rubber and ball I still can’t find. HELP!!

  14. Helped my wife work the Zed version on her Droid, and wished there was one for PCs… Thank you Thank you! (…any quick hint for Supernova -> Black Hole?)

  16. I’m having trouble starting the game.
    after downloading exe, it will only give me error

    AppName: alchemy.exe AppVer: 2.1.0.0 AppStamp:4e773208
    ModName: kernel32.dll ModVer: 5.1.2600.5781 ModStamp:49c4f482
    fDebug: 0 Offset: 00012afb

  23. Hi Marius,

    Thank you for such an awesome port!

    I seem to be having an issue though with getting this to run on my Windows 7 machines.

    I have 2 laptops with screen resolutions at 1280×800, .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 is built into the OS and they have .NET 4.0 installed. I have extracted the .exe file from the zip file into its own folder.

    Every time I try to play it though, I can see its process start up in task manager and automatically close. On my Windows XP machines it works perfectly, I just can’t seem to get it to work in Windows 7.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

  28. Dear Marius,

    I LOVE YOUR GAME! I’ve download it, unrar the archive and.. when i start the app it shows ‘The app failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click OK to terminate the app.

    HELP, PLS !!!

  32. First, I wanted to thank you for your game- it has been very entertaining for my entire family. But…I can’t get “transistor” for the life of me and it’s making my entire family insane. We’re playing Alchemy for windows v2.1. the hint says silicon + (?? WHAT ??). I’ve googled. I’ve binged. I’ve phoned a friend. I’ve tried to cheat. I don’t care about hints anymore, like a mad man, I JUST NEED TO KNOW. Almost everything claims it should either be silicon + energy or silicon + electricity, but nada nope zilch is working. Please help us sleep again at night. LOL. Thanks, Angela

  33. Wonderful game !! I am to totally addicted. Just a few suggestions for combos πŸ˜€ And please please please someone tell me how to make alchocol, I am stuck πŸ™

    House + Ice = Igloo
    Sun + glasses = sunglasses
    igloo + man = eskimo

  35. Hey your game is just awesome i salute your efforts to make this game well can you post all 500 combinations just for reference ?

  36. Hey Marius Bancila Thank you For developing this game for windows as a programmer i salute your efforts to make this game..This game is really addiction we keep on discovering new elements thats the good part of the game..Many of us are stuck some where in the game so i suggest you to Reveal All 500 Combinations just for Reference i Googled a Lot But Couldnt Find It and Your game is not same as android so android combinations not workin so hope to see all combinations soon THANK YOU

  40. OMG!

    I just wanted to personally thank you for making this game for the pc!
    And having it translated into dutch, which made my daughter (11 years old) So happy, I can’t express it!

    A wholehearted big dutch thanks from us!

  41. Please tell me about making star from sky, I really don’t know what to do for a days, I tried everything!

  42. How do I make “blackboard” from “chalk”? And what about “basket”? Just 10 things lefting πŸ™‚
    Thanks

  44. Hi Mario,

    Just wanted to thank you for an excellent game, it has taken over my life since I found you 3 days ago!!

    My boyfriend had it on his phone and I was helping, then I googled it looking for a pc version and found you :o)

    I’m due to have a baby in 2 weeks so I was very bored at home waiting… now I have something to do while I wait!!

    Am currently searching for an atomic bomb…. some of them drive me crazy ;o)

    Many thanks x

  45. There is an atomic bomb and a hydrogen bomb. This should be pretty easy actually. First of all, it’s an arm. Second you need some radioactive material to build it. Which is it? If you make the atomic bomb, you can make the hydrogen bomb too. Just think what an hydrogen bomb needs to start its reaction.

    Wish all the best for you and the baby. You know, they might come earlier than you expect. πŸ™‚ I hope you won’t be too bored until then. After that, you’ll have no more free time for a long while.

  47. For the love of god cannot figure out how to make the microchip, or it isn’t working. I’m pretty sure it isn’t the latter but I’m stuck. I think I did the senseible cominations, especially transistor+transistor, even tried transistor with electricity, energym man and lots of other stuff. Feel like I’m about to try it with animals but that can’t be it…

    Also I have several suggestions for new combinations, how do I submit those?
    Plus the Dutch version says Diamand, which should be Diamant.

    Thanks for a great pastime πŸ™‚ Even though I feel frustrated a bit now πŸ™‚

  49. @ Dick … transistor + tools…
    Noticed the errors in the dutch as well πŸ˜‰ There are quite a few, hehe

  50. Hi, Marius, thanks you for creating a wonderful game. I’ve been addicted your game since i installed it. However, i had difficulty making a skyscraper, i tried by combining the house with the glass, but it didn’t work, Please help me!!

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