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...".
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.
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.
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.
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.
Washington Apple Pi Journal said it is a "great and useful program", despite doing nothing useful.
MacAddict found the controls to be smooth, and the program a great indicator of the speed of the users Mac.
Craig Crossman considered it as a waterfall simulator, with creating and watching waterfalls relaxing.