Eric’s Cascade: A Review

© 1998 Lawrence I. Charters (writing as Washington Apple Pi Labs)

Washington Apple Pi Journal, Vol. 20, no. 3, May-June 1998, pp. 28-29.

Buy this program. You really don’t need to know anything else; you’ll enjoy the program far more than you’ll enjoy reading this article. So go buy it. Ignore such petty details as “what is it?” and “does it enhance productivity?” The important things to know: it is pretty. It is Very Macintosh. It is inexpensive. It does require a Power Macintosh and a CD-ROM drive, though you only need the CDROM drive to load the program. After that, you probably won’t need the CD-ROM drive again. For anything. Eric’s Cascade will so captivate you that little else will matter.

Cascade first fountain: A typical Eric's Cascade fountain: faucets at the top and spigots on the sides and in the center spray water about, which bounces off blocks and spinners. Meanwhile, some (round) "magnets" muck about with the laws of physics.
Cascade first fountain: A typical Eric’s Cascade fountain: faucets at the top and spigots on the sides and in the center spray water about, which bounces off blocks and spinners. Meanwhile, some (round) “magnets” muck about with the laws of physics.

But What Is It?

For those who decided to keep reading, instead of rushing out to buy Eric’s Cascade, we (nice, Imperial “we”) can only conclude you are either trapped in a dentist’s waiting room, unable to escape, or possibly you don’t have a Power Mac. Believe it or not, that is covered in the Eric’s Cascade manual:

I don’t have a PowerPC Macintosh

You’re starting to get tricky, now. Buy one. You’ll like it.

This is good advice, from one of the best-written computer manuals we’ve ever seen. The manual covers everything you’re likely to want to know about Eric’s Cascade, and even has a short biography of Eric Snider, author of the program. It is one of the few computer manuals we’ve read cover to cover. It is one of the few computer manuals worth quoting!

Cascade hair dryer: Along the left side, the faucet button turns the water on and off, the clock freezes all activity, and the hairdryer (shown in action) blows water drops out of the way, so you can see the underlying structure of a fountain. Admit it: you've always wanted a Mac program that included a hair dryer.
Cascade hair dryer: Along the left side, the faucet button turns the water on and off, the clock freezes all activity, and the hairdryer (shown in action) blows water drops out of the way, so you can see the underlying structure of a fountain. Admit it: you’ve always wanted a Mac program that included a hair dryer.

As for “what is it?” (we hope you have your Power Mac ready), Eric’s Cascade is a water fountain simulator. You can use it to build simple water fountains. Or complex water fountains. Or water fountains that are not, strictly speaking, in compliance with the normal laws of physics. It is cool.

Though mentioned earlier, let us repeat: it is Very Macintos h , combining a conspicuous use of computing power with beauty. You can enjoy one of the many fountains that come with Eric’s Cascade, or you can modify them – endlessly – to suit your tastes, or you can boldly go where no one has gone before and create your own fountains. And without getting wet, either.

While the fountain splashes around on the screen, you hear the sound of water splashing, too (unless you turn that oft), as well as background music (unless you turn that off, too). Which brings up the only complaint about the package: Certain People with weak bladders have said the constant sound of running water makes them want to go to the bathroom. This may actually be a plus: have it on-screen during a boring meeting, and the meeting might conclude much faster.

Cascade set magnet: Magnets, like other elements, are customizable: you can set their strength (gravitational attraction) and color, and even reverse the fiow of gravity, making them repel water instead of attract it. In this case, the magnet is set to pulse, alternately attracting and repelling water in half-second intervals.
Cascade set magnet: Magnets, like other elements, are customizable: you can set their strength (gravitational attraction) and color, and even reverse the fiow of gravity, making them repel water instead of attract it. In this case, the magnet is set to pulse, alternately attracting and repelling water in half-second intervals.

Cascade set magnet: Magnets, like other elements, are customizable: you can set their strength (gravitational attraction) and color, and even reverse the fiow of gravity, making them repel water instead of attract it. In this case, the magnet is set to pulse, alternately attracting and repelling water in half-second intervals.

Virtually everything is customizable. Add your own water faucets, spigots, spinners, blocks (for directing water), and “magnets” (for playing around with gravity, not magnetism. Physics Lesson of the Day: water isn’t usually “magnetic,” but ignore this when using Eric’s Cascade). Each fountain piece can be, itself, customized in various ways, from its color (and the color of the water it touches it), to “bounciness,” to the direction and speed of spin, to other less obvious attributes.

The background music is also customizable, since these are MIDI clips converted to QuickTime clips (and the manual gives Web addresses of where you can find more music). Finally, the background patterns can be customized; many are included on the CD-ROM, but you can easily add your own.

Most (but not all) of the customization features are mentioned in the manual, which offers this alternative, very practical advice:

Put Eric’s Cascade on your hard drive. Run it. Figure the rest out for yourself – you’re smart enough, you’re good enough, and doggone it, people like you.

But Why!?!?

Eric’s Cascade is a splendid example of Things Macintosh: it is pretty, it is elegant, and it is user friendly. But is it useful? The manual offers two possible answers: (1) it is educational (since Eric Snider used Real Laws of Physics and Real Math to design the program); and (2) it is also a screen saver.

Sadly, neither answer is terribly accurate: (1) Yes, the program uses Real Math and Real Physics, but the user doesn’t have to know a thing about either to enjoy the program and (2) screen savers — all screen savers — don’t actually save screens.

So the real answer is: yes, it is a great and useful program because it does not require physics or math and it does nothing useful. What more could you possibly want, anyway?

But There’s More

Eric’s Cascade is too large to fit on a floppy (roughly twelve megabytes, depending on what you install), so it is distributed on CDRO M. Since CDROMs can hold far more than twelve megabytes, Delta Tao, the publisher, tosses in demo versions of virtually all their other software packages: Color MacCheese (an inexpensive paint and image editing package), Spaceward Hof (strategic space conquest game), Color Dark Castle (a color version of one of the first graphical role- playing games) and Eric’s Ultimate Solitaire CD (a vastly expanded version of the demo game included with Apple’s recent system software.

There is also a large QuickTime movie on the comedy group Mumblypeg, plus five audio tracks of Mumblypeg routines. If you have a Mac with a built-in CD-ROM drive, you can use the AppleCD Audio Player to play the tracks in the background while you try to do useful things (not recommended), or you can be hopelessly conventional and play the tracks on a regular CD audio player.

Furthermore, and in conclusion

Buy it. If you must, buy a Power Macintosh first, and then buy it.

Eric’s Cascade, $44 Delta Tao Software 760 Harvard Ave. Sunnyvale, CA 94087 ( 408) 730-9336 E-mail: help@deltatao.com Web: http://www.deJtatao.com

Available from MacConnection, Mac Warehouse, MacZone, or online from Cyberian Outpost. Delta Tao offers a $5 discount if you order direct and say you read about it on their Web site.