It was not rumors who said it was 85% complete but* one of the programmers (Pierre Proulx):
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=28258
See post #32
Sadly, he is no longer registered.
Perhaps laffer still has a way to contact him. Or perhaps RCK has somewhere in a database the email address used to register the account.
*: or perhaps the rumors you have read have another source and Pierre Proulx cited the same source.