Each particle is visible for one frame. You could start the particle function 50 times or even more, without any problems.

The particles are very small (size = 0.2-0.3) and they don´t use a bitmap. It´s a small, fast effect.
The textpanel is a model with alphachannel. There are three textpanels, slightly jittering. One of them is the particle "targed".
Edit: I´ve an idea how to achive nearly the same effect without "streak" - even without particles at all!
I play around with it later this day and will post my results.