Eyeballs

Eyeballs is a long-running Stick Software desk-critter for the Mac, written by Ben Haller, that places a pair of cartoon eyes on the desktop and follows the cursor wherever it goes. Version 3.1 is the Mac OS X build preserved on Info-Mac; an earlier 68k extension lineage dates back to 1989-1990 menu-bar eyes.

What it does

Eyeballs runs as a small always-on companion: two stylised eyes track the mouse pointer in real time, blink occasionally, and react to clicks. Unlike the many one-off xeyes-style toys, Stick's version is configurable for size, position, blink rate, and behavioural quirks, with the stated goal of feeling like a tiny pet rather than a debug widget.

Skins and look

The hallmark of Eyeballs 3.x is its skin system: the eye art can be swapped wholesale, with bundled skins covering everything from straightforward Aqua spheres to themed sets. Version 3.1 added a Pirate Blue skin and a Japanese localisation on top of the existing skin library.

Lineage

Stick Software's earliest Eyeballs release was a 1989 male-eyes menu bar extension followed in 1990 by a female-eyes (lashed) variant for the 68k Mac. The 3.x line is a from-scratch rewrite for OS X, distributed as Eyeballs.dmg.gz on Info-Mac and through sticksoftware.com.

Distribution

Freely redistributable, including on CD-ROM compilations. Updates, the user manual, and contact details lived at sticksoftware.com/software/Eyeballs.html, with support handled at support@sticksoftware.com. Macintosh Garden hosts the surviving 68k extensions for emulator use.