Eric's Cascade

Eric's Cascade
Developers: Eric Snider, Delta Tao Software Publisher: Delta Tao Software Platform: Mac OS Classic Released in US: January 6, 1998 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has debugging material. This game has a prerelease article

Violent J:
This fountain I designed, has left me reeling
It fills my screen from Control Strip to ceiling

Shaggy 2 Dope:
Niagara Falls has got nothing on this
There's magic in every frame of this bitch

Violent J:
Water is flipping mid-air, like Cirque

Shaggy 2 Dope:
It's drawn to a magnet? How does THAT work?!

Sub-Page

Prerelease Info

Debugging

To resurrect a debug menu, open MBAR resource 128, click on 6) *****, and insert a new field for menu ID 133. Here's what you've added to the game's menubar:

Note that even though the first three commands are toggles, the menu never indicates whether they're on or off.

• 

  Frame Update Area will draw black borders around the areas of the screen that changed in the latest frame. When the active area contracts, the lines outside it remain. You can clean up the stray lines by clicking the hair dryer tool.

• 

  Update With Strips will toggle between horizontal strips and only a single vertical slab.

• 

  More Strips will subdivide the horizontal strips into twice as many that are half as tall. Above is as short as they can get (16 pixels).

• 

  Less Strips does the reverse of More. Starting from 16 pixels, it can be applied 10 times for a theoretical height of 16384 pixels. Doubling again to 32768 or beyond causes an overflow (no pun intended) that freezes the animation until the strip size is lowered to 16384.

• 

  Combine Similar Strips will merge adjacent strips into boxes, creating Mondrianesque designs.

The status of the toggled menu items will be preserved when you quit and relaunch, but strip height will snap back to 32 pixels.

Unused Graphics

		There's an icon for a save file, but the CscU file type is omitted from the application's bundle, so it isn't used.
		Another unused icon is a thumbnail of the cloudy sky background graphic.
		PICT 2001 is a close-up of a spigot.
		...and I have no idea what this guy is doing here.

Not shown: ICN# 5000 is a standard Mac OS mouse pointer in the upper left corner of a monochrome Finder icon.

Prototype Strings

Found in the data fork:

PreRelease

Delta Tao Software, Inc.
760 Harvard
Sunnyvale CA
94087

408 730-9336

And in STR resource 1003:

Your copy of Cascade has expired. Contact Eric at weasel@spies.com to get a new version.

Error Strings

Also found in the data fork: a whole host of error strings. The highlights are bolded for your convenience.

Trying to delete an item with an invalid type = %d
Invalid Erase Style /time: %f - Destroyed %d particles. %d are left.
Type is wrong in faucetList = %d
Particle hit an invalid object. #%d
Particle's velocity was NAN.
distance is near 0.
Top strip number is outta range. y = %d, strip = %d
Bottom strip number is outta range. y = %d, strip = %d
Sorry, can't have more than %d objects
Invalid object type
invalid block type in Duplicate Object
Hey, nothing is selected. Shouldn't be able to DuplicateObject
velocity of particle is NAN.
Found active = %d, and numParticles = %d
File says it has %d objects in it. There can't be more than %d though.
Invalid type in LoadObjects.
Error loading object %d in file. It said it was type %d.
Found %d ok looking objects out of %d.
Couldn't allocate memory to save file.
Size of start is %d. End is %d.
Problem reading Cascade File. Error = %d
Size of start is %d. End is %d. Size should always be %d
Invalid Cascade file version, %d
Invalid erase style.
rotateAmount is not a number!
radians is not a number!
Invalid Block type in StartFrame.
Invalid blockType = %d
Trying to reset particle with a non Spigot Block!
Color Counter is < 0
Invalid background type
Couldn't allocate Gradient Offview
Error loading pattern. resID = %d, Error #%d
Couldn't allocate handle for icl8. 0ResError = %d
ResError = %d, problem adding pict preview icon.
Couldn't allocate handle for icon mask. -ResError = %d
Error in CBackgroundDlg::DrawSample opening background. bgtype = %d
Couldn't read in background - %s
Problem loading pict resource %d
Couldn't allocate Gradient Offview. Error = %d
Couldn't find the backgrounds folder
Error %d reading pict BGInfo structs
Error %d reading ppat BGInfo structs
Error %d reading grad BGInfo structs
Assertion failed. result was %d
Error opening background file. Error = %d
Couldn't open background file.
Error #%d getting pict resource
Invalid Background Type!
Invalid Pattern type
Error opening background file. Error #%d
Couldn't find pattern
Open Background: %s
Compressing Prefs file to get rid of empty space.
No Appearance Manager
Error reading Volume menu
Can't Fix Debug Menu.
Error %d when getting Help Menu.
Should check if window fits on screen
window width was %d, height was %d.
Something is fucked with the Window Draw code.
ClippedDraw doesn't work yet.
Activate window
Deactivate window
%s - %d particles (%d active)
Problem with GetCurrentProcess
Problem with GetProcessInformation
Where's your Music folder?
Problem with ResolveAliasFile
Can't find Music folder. It's a document!
Problem with PBGetCatInfo when looking for Music folder
problem making FSSpec for file
problem trying to Resolve Alias on file
problem trying to get Finder Info about file
Error %d when trying to 'EnterMovies'
Error callin' NewMovieFromFile. Error %d
error PreRolling movie. Error #%d
Error closing movie file. Error #%d
Invalid music volume choice
No Music
Movie Error %d
drawing mode wasn't set
that drawing mode (%d) isn't supported yet.
Invalid sound volume choice
Couldn’t read in string resource %d
Can't do a sqrt
Color Counter is < 0
Invalid Gravity type (%d) in Draw.
faucetOnTime was %d
faucetOffTime was %d
The default Rotate function does nothing.
type = %d. This should never happen.
EditObject should be overridden
type = %d. Draw must be overridden
type = %d. Move must be overridden
Too many buttons
Bad button type
Couldn't allocate draw context
Error restoring fountain from prefs. Error = %d
Unable to find a matching context for the following attributes:
No Mode doesn't do anything. Should it?
Stimpy! You Idiot! Attributes is nil
Where's your Fountains folder?
Can't find Fountains folder. It's a document!
Problem with PBGetCatInfo when looking for Fountains folder
Couldn't install openapp apple event handler
Couldn't install open apple event handler
Couldn't install quit apple event handler
DTSControl must have an owner dialog.
Invalid type passed to DTSControl.
Image only of depth 1, 8, 16, or 32.
Couldn't allocate memory.
Bad allocation flag in DTSImage::DisposeBits
ErrorCode %d set.
They chose something from the Help menu
Received unknown event.
sound already initialized
Channel not found in list
Invalid sndMode %d
View not found in parent's list
Warning: Bad DTSImage passed to DTSView::Draw.
DTSOffView only of depth 1, 8, 16, or 32.
Warning: Bad DTSImage passed to DTSOffView::SetImage.
Invalid kind passed to DTSWindow.
Allocation Failure

Miscellaneous

PICT 24002, the statue head used in dialog boxes, is internally titled "Neutral Weasel"—a carryover from Eric's Ultimate Solitaire, whose mascot was a cartoon weasel with various expressions.