"<i>To be added (Please, go ahead!) [...] Cursor Trail</i>"<p>This was an OS feature (and still is, at least on Win7), rather than a cheesy webpage effect. The browser was never allowed to know what the cursor looks like, so it's impossible for webpages to implement a native-looking mouse trail that works consistently.<p>The OS mouse trail was super useful on LCD screens with sluggish pixels: without it, the cursor would be essentially invisible if you moved the mouse too fast. Couldn't use my NEC Ready 120LT without this feature!
I have fond memories of the "Elastic Bullets" trail (all the cool kids had it on their websites).<p>Most of my early javascript snippets came from javascript.internet.com [1], but I found a copy on yaldex [2]. More classics available there and javascript-fx.com [3]<p>[1] <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000619201149/http://javascript.internet.com/" rel="nofollow">http://web.archive.org/web/20000619201149/http://javascript....</a><p>[2] <a href="http://www.yaldex.com/FSMessages/ElasticBullets.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.yaldex.com/FSMessages/ElasticBullets.htm</a><p>[3] <a href="http://javascript-fx.com/mouse_trail/index.html" rel="nofollow">http://javascript-fx.com/mouse_trail/index.html</a>
Suggestion: search through the Geocity, Tripod, ... archives that survived and use Archive.org<p>About mouse cursors and effects: Windows 95 Plus CD contained many desktop themes incl various themed cursor, background wallpapers, animated screensaver. Wonderful for its time.
This brought back memories from old times: I can remember copying some Javascript code to a forum I used to manage to get snow flakes to fall on the screen (during christmas). I loved the effect!
I know this is probably a losing battle, but I have to try: The <i>cursor</i> is the text insertion point. The thing that moves when you move the mouse and is arrow-shaped by default is correctly called the <i>pointer.</i>
I remember one particularly annoying one from that era was an analogue clock that used to surround the mouse pointer. I wonder if that still exists anywhere.
This reminds me of cleaning the Comet Cursor[1] adware, which did this (and other random and obnoxious effects), off of people's PCs back in the early 2000s. IIRC, it was bundled with Real Player and usually accompanied with Gator...<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Cursor" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Cursor</a>