Crowdfunding site Indiegogo has called time on a high-profile British project to create a retro handheld console.
The US firm has told backers of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega+ that it is appointing a debt collection agency to recoup funds from the London-based company behind the campaign.
It said Retro Computers Ltd (RCL) had failed to meet the conditions it had set to be given more time.
The BBC has asked RCL to comment but has yet to get a response.
But the firm’s Twitter account has posted: “To be clear we offered to demo the unit to Indiegogo’s London-based representative and this is how they have reacted.”
Indiegogo, however, had demanded a unit be couriered over to its offices so that it could carry out its own checks.
“The campaign owners have not met the requirements Indiegogo sent last week,” a spokesman for Indiegogo said in a statement.
“Our Trust & Safety team is now continuing the process of sending this campaign to collections in an effort to return funds to backers.
“During this time, the campaign owners are still able to pursue fulfilment of the project and they are not prevented from shipping any units that are ready to be sent out to backers.”
■ ZX Vega+ faces Indiegogo’s debt collectors
■ Spectrum Vega+ promises followed funds threat
■ Vega+ funding campaign halted by Indiegogo
The Vega+ campaign raised a total of £512,790 from more than 4,700 people on Indiegogo before the US firm blocked it from accepting more funds in March 2017.
In addition, RCL has claimed that “pre-orders” for the games machine have been “selling fast” via its own website.
The chairman of the company, Dr David Levy, told the BBC last week that he was “determined to deliver” the handheld computer, and intended to send out the first units by 15 June.
RCL had, however, previously missed multiple deadlines. The company had originally pledged to deliver the console in the summer of 2016.
Indiegogo had given three conditions for it to postpone a the threat of intervention, which it had made in February.
Sky does own some of the intellectual property rights involved, since it owns Amstrad, which acquired Sinclair’s marketing and merchandising rights in 1986.
However, a spokeswoman for the firm denied it had held up deliveries.
According to RCL’s most recently filed accounts, it had £433,008 of assets at the end of March 2017.
Dr Levy declined to provide an update when asked last week.
A website campaigning for Sir Clive Sinclair – the original inventor of the ZX Spectrum computers – to intervene has identified 106 backers who say they have requested refunds.
It says that they have requested a total of £13,270 be handed back.
Source: BBC news
