Resource centre for ZX Spectrum games
using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
IV. Jet Set Willy 128 (JSW128)
Games using John Elliott's JSW128 game engine for the 128K Spectrum
7. Frosya the Cat / Jet Cat Frosya
Author: Igor Makovsky
Year:
Frosya the Cat - 2002
Frosya the Cat - Lite Version - 2002
Jet Cat Frosya - 2004
Language: English
Frosya the Cat was the first JSW game created by Igor Makovsky. It was released in March 2002. The original game file contained bugs which made it impossible to complete. In November 2002 Igor Makovsky released a modified Lite Version of the game, but it was still incompletable. Finally, in September 2004, Igor released the final revision of the game, called Jet Cat Frosya, which could be completed without losing a single life.
GAME PREMISE: In the summer of 1997, Frosya the cat lived peacefully with her two beloved kittens at a country house in Russia. One night, she had a terrifying dream about a newly arrived dog, UZOR, stealing one of her kittens—only to wake and find it had come true. Determined to rescue her stolen child, Frosya confronts UZOR, a street-hardened dog with a tragic past, who demands a ransom: 255 tasty items. With no other choice, Frosya embarks on a perilous quest to gather the food and outwit UZOR, proving that a mother’s love knows no bounds. Will she succeed in bringing her family back together? The adventure begins...
The game was inspired by a real-life character, Igor's cat Frosya, who was his friend and creative inspiration for 17 years (1995–2012). Igor created numerous stories and paper-based games featuring her as the main character, and when he designed his first interactive computer game, he naturally made it a tribute to her. The game's plot is also based on actual events. Igor's family adopted Frosya, who quickly became part of their home. Some months later, his grandmother rescued a drowning puppy from a man at the pond, named him Uzor (meaning "Colourful" in English), and brought him home. While the family welcomed Uzor, Frosya was fiercely opposed to the new arrival, and the two animals remained rivals, constantly competing for affection. A year later, when Frosya had kittens of her own, Uzor took revenge—stealing one of her kittens while she was away. Desperate to get her baby back, Frosya confronted Uzor, but as it turned out, the only way to secure her kitten's freedom was by offering Uzor food.
Frosya the Cat / Jet Cat Frosya utilises the JSW128 game engine but has no connection whatsoever to the original JSW in terms of plot or characters. The game features entirely new rooms and sprites, except for one section, which includes a remake of several rooms from JSW as a tribute to Igor's favourite ZX Spectrum game. There is no in-game music.
Igor described Frosya the Cat / Jet Cat Frosya as a medium-difficulty game. He aimed to make its difficulty level similar to that of the original JSW but admitted that Frosya the Cat / Jet Cat Frosya may feel harder due to its larger scope, with more than twice the number of rooms and 256 collectible items instead of 83. Despite this, the individual rooms themselves are not overly difficult. He advised players to collect all items in each room they visit, as returning—though always possible—may be challenging. Igor also asked players not to take seriously the rare "unusual" elements, including sexually explicit or violence-related graphics, as they were introduced purely as jokes.
In early 2025, Daniel Gromann thoroughly playtested Frosya the Cat and Frosya the Cat – Lite Version and, with Igor's kind support, prepared bug-fixed, fully completable versions of these first two incarnations of the game. They can be downloaded below, and the information regarding game completion refers to these versions.
Frosya the Cat and Frosya the Cat – Lite Version use Hacklevel 8 of the JSW128 game engine.
Jet Cat Frosya and the bug-fixed versions of the two earlier incarnations of the game use Hacklevel 9 of the JSW128 game engine.
Frosya the Cat
Number of edited rooms: 156
Number of rooms accessible without cheating: 137
(Rooms 137-155 cannot be accessed without cheating. They mostly contain messages addressed to individuals active in the JSW scene at the time the game was created.)
Number of items to collect: 256
Bugfix needed after release? YES
Official bugfix released? NO
Third-party bugfix released? YES, with the approval of the original author
Spare lives at the start: 7
Completable without loss of life? YES
Starting time: 7:00 am
Best documented completion time with no loss of life: 9:58 am
Frosya the Cat - Lite Version
Number of edited rooms: 156
Number of rooms accessible without cheating: 137
(Rooms 137–155 cannot be accessed without cheating. They mostly contain messages addressed to individuals active in the JSW scene at the time the game was created.)
Number of items to collect: 256
Bugfix needed after release? YES
Official bugfix released? NO
Third-party bugfix released? YES, with the approval of the original author
Spare lives at the start: 7
Completable without loss of life? YES
Starting time: 7:00 am
Best documented completion time with no loss of life: 9:49 am
Jet Cat Frosya
Number of edited rooms: 138
Number of rooms accessible without cheating: 137
(Room "cgfcb,j pf buhe!" [137] cannot be accessed without cheating.)
Number of items to collect: 256
Bugfix needed after release? NO
Spare lives at the start: 7
Completable without loss of life? YES
Starting time: 7:00 am
Best documented completion time with no loss of life: 9:50 am
Download links
|
Game files of all three versions of Frosya in TAP and TZX format, including the bugfixed editions |
|
Bugfixed, completable versions of Frosya the Cat and Frosya the Cat - Lite Version in TAP and TZX format with a Readme, the original release files and also the original release of Jet Cat Frosya |
|
The page of Frosya the Cat (including the Lite Version) on WoS |
|
The page of Jet Cat Frosya on WoS |
|
The page of Frosya the Cat (including the Lite Version) on Spectrum Computing |
|
|
|
The page of Jet Cat Frosya on Spectrum Computing |
|
The map of Frosya the Cat on Speccy Screenshot Maps |
|
The map of Jet Cat Frosya on Speccy Screenshot Maps |
|
RZX walkthroughs of all three incarnations of the game showing the best documented completion times |
|
RZX walkthrough of Jet Cat Frosya (showing a completion of the game which is inferior to the best publicly available recording) |
Videos
A walkthrough of Frosya the Cat on the JSW Central YouTube channel
A walkthrough of Frosya the Cat - Lite Version on the JSW Central YouTube channel
A walkthrough of Jet Cat Frosya on the JSW Central YouTube channel
A complete screenshot gallery will be presented on this page in the future.
| Back to the list of JSW128 games |