Dragon's Lair PSP quests for publisher

The Dragon's Lair franchise has always focused on comic protagonist Dirk the Daring and his attempts to rescue his sweetheart Princess Daphne, but the series' current developer is saying a planned PlayStation Portable version of the game needs rescuing. United Coders sent out a press release today announcing that it wants to make a PSP version of the game for a Christmas 2008 release, but it needs a publishing partner to make that a reality.

In exchange for financially backing the development and licensing costs for the PSP edition (which the studio is hoping to begin next month), United Coders is offering up the global publishing rights for the game on the PSP platform. The studio is no stranger to the animated arcade game and is currently working on versions of Dragon's Lair, Dragon's Lair II, and Space Ace for the Nintendo DS.

Set for release by the end of March, the DS edition of Dragon's Lair will include two play modes: a 1983 arcade mode faithful to the original game and a Director's Cut, which promises "new and unique gameplay options," support for the DS touch screen and Rumble Pak, and voice recognition through the system's microphone.

The planned PSP port would include the original and Director's Cut versions of the game, with the latter including additional video footage that wasn't included in the original release, extra lives, revamped sound effects, and other tweaks intended to make the game more compelling for players new to the series.