terminal emulators like Cathode?

There is a new (actually one year old) terminal emulator project that does exactly what you want: cool-retro-term (and I agree, it's really cool!).

Ubuntu users can install it from this ppa: ppa:bugs-launchpad-net-falkensweb/cool-retro-term or compile it from source:

sudo apt-get install build-essential qmlscene qt5-qmake qt5-default qtdeclarative5-dev qtdeclarative5-controls-plugin qtdeclarative5-qtquick2-plugin libqt5qml-graphicaleffects qtdeclarative5-dialogs-plugin qtdeclarative5-localstorage-plugin qtdeclarative5-window-plugin
git clone --recursive https://github.com/Swordfish90/cool-retro-term.git
cd cool-retro-term
qmake && make
./cool-retro-term

There are none like Cathode for Ubuntu. It's an OSX thing.