ASCII Ball in Box Animation

Ruby 1.9, 115 characters

The movement logic is quite similar to Danko's answer.

This version has been tested on Linux only.

p=0
loop{u=(?|+?\s*18+"|
")*8
u[165-21*(7-p%14).abs-(17-p%34).abs]=?*
p+=1
puts"\e[2J",r=?++?-*18+?+,u,r
sleep 0.1}

Powershell, 144 characters

Based on Joey's excellent answer, using the fact that the ball coordinates are a function of the frame index (i), so if you have something like x=n-abs(n-(i mod (2*n))), x will go from 0 to n, back to 0, and so on...

for(){cls
($l="+$('-'*18)+")
7..0|%{$j=$_
"|$(-join(17..0|%{'* '[$j-[Math]::abs(7-$i%14)-or$_-[Math]::abs(17-$i%34)]}))|"}
$l;$i++;sleep -m 100}

Ruby (179 174 147)

EDIT got rid of some more chars:

l=?++?-*18+?++?\n
c=?|+?\s*18+?|+?\n
p=22
u=v=1
loop{f=l+c*8+l
f[p]=?*
puts"\e[2J"+f
p+=(u=f[p+u]==' '?u:-u)+21*(v=f[p+21*v]==' '?v:-v)
sleep 0.1}

EDIT shaved off some chars, now 174:

l="+#{'-'*18}+\n";f=l+"|#{' '*18}|\n"*8+l;x=y=u=v=1
loop{f[21*y+x]='*';$><<"\e[2J\e[f"+f;f[21*y+x]=' '
u=f[21*y+x+u]==' '?u:-u;v=f[21*(y+v)+x]==' '?v:-v
x+=u;y+=v;sleep 0.1}

Ungolfed:

l="+#{'-'*18}+\n"           # top and bottom lines 
f=l+"|#{' '*18}|\n"*8+l     # complete box as string
x=y=u=v=1                   # x,y position; u,v next move
loop {                      #
  f[21*y+x]='*'             # add ball to box
  $> << "\e[2J\e[f"+f       # clear screen and print box with ball
  f[21*y+x]=' '             # remove ball from box
  u=f[21*y+x+u]==' '?u:-u   # next move in x direction
  v=f[21*(y+v)+x]==' '?v:-v # next move in y direction
  x+=u                      # perform move
  y+=v                      # --"--
  sleep 0.1                 # .zZZ...
}                           #