Eric's Cascade

Eric's Cascade is a screensaver type program developed by Eric Snider for the PowerPC Macintosh. The publisher described it as "not exactly a game, not exactly a utility...".²

Eric's Cascade began as a computer graphics experiment by Drew Olbrich while working at Pacific Data Images. Olbrich's "experimental particle simulation of water pouring out of a tap" ran on a Silicon Graphics workstation. In exchange for an agreement for a small portion of the revenue Olbrich allowed Snider to begin work on a version for a Mac. With the aid of others at Apple, the code was optimized to run in real time at an acceptable framerate.³

It was never considered releasing Eric's Cascade as a game, and it was released as a "software toy"/screensaver. The player can set several water spigots at angles of their choice, with the water dyed a variety of colours and the water guided, reflected or sucked to create droplets all over the screen.³

Washington Apple Pi Journal called it a "water fountain simulator". Optional sound effects and music could be played. Various taps, blocks and spinners could be placed, and circular "magnets" could be used to attract or repel water.⁴

The manual included a biography of Eric Snider. The software was supplied on a CD-ROM which included demos of other Delta Tao software, including Eric's Ultimate Solitaire.⁴

Washington Apple Pi Journal said it is a "great and useful program", despite doing nothing useful.⁴

MacAddict found the controls to be smooth, and the program a great indicator of the speed of the users Mac.⁵

Craig Crossman considered it as a waterfall simulator, with creating and watching waterfalls relaxing.²