If you are building a retro gaming PC using actual hardware (like a Sound Blaster Audigy or X-Fi), you need the original drivers. Modern versions of Windows (10 and 11) often have generic drivers that allow the card to play sound, but they strip away the EAX functionality. You need the original Creative drivers or the "Creative Audio Processor" support software to re-enable the EAX console.
You may need to look for third-party wrappers like DSOAL . 2. Legacy Drivers (Windows XP/Vista/7) creative eax download