Microtek MDC-1 Parallel Port Camera

13Dec/175

Microtek MDC-1 Parallel Port Camera

This thing just looks cool! Advertised as 'really simple to use' since it only needs your parallel port, it's a true-colour 640x480 webcam for the Windows Millenium era. Well, I say Win ME, but I could be wrong... the drivers I found are for ME though, so it definitely hung around.

It has a lengthy cable with a little bit of 'interesting' at the end. Sure, you have the parallel port.. which we're expecting.. but then you have an 'adapter' that has male PS/2 on one end and a female AT keyboard connector on the rear. Wait... so... If my PC has an AT Keyboard port, I'm screwed because this has male PS/2... BUT I can plug my keyboard in to the back of it? Vice-versa, if I only have PS/2 ports, I then need an AT Keyboard? Maybe it came with an extra adapter when you bought it knew. Fortunately, I happened to find one in my box'o'junk!

So, in my AT case, I converted the AT to PS/2, plugged in the webcam and then plugged in ANOTHER AT to PS/2 to connect my keyboard! Hooked together...

We have power!

Software

Thanks to webarchive, the original page for the camera is here. Unfortunately, the snapshot they've taken doesn't include drivers. Regardless of the list of files here, they all seem to be for their scanners. Fortunately, Driverguide has a Windows Millenium Driver for the MDC-1. (Mirrored locally at this URL)

Downloading and installing was simple enough on Windows 98 SE. The software needed a reboot and then I had a program folder with Camera Test in it... sure! Why not?

Nice... it just worked perfectly. Terrible in low-light, but that's to be expected!

For those running open source software, you may be in luck. Is this a Linux Driver? Is this the same one? Maybe this?

Looks like they made sequels: Microtek Eyestar 2? And a USB version also.

Filed under: Retro Leave a comment

Comments (5) Trackbacks (0) ( subscribe to comments on this post )

Marcelo
June 10th, 2019 - 15:30

Hello fella, can you upload the drivers please? I just got one of these and I cant get it working. Greeting from Argentina!

( REPLY )
- stevenh
  June 14th, 2019 - 10:14
  
  Howdy,
  The drivers are up there via the link to DriverGuide… but I’ve got a copy here:
  https://modelrail.otenko.com/assets/EyestarPPC.zip
  Steven.
  
  ( REPLY )
Keith
April 16th, 2020 - 05:51

Hello Steven,

My parents have an older PC running Win7 Home Premium SP1 and I’m trying to connect my old Microtek MDC 1 camera so they can use Zoom for videoconferencing during the Coronavirus. I have a green light indicating power so all the hardware looks functional. I still had my install CD but it produces an error saying that “The version of this file wasn’t compatible with the version of Windows you’re running.” when I try to run the setup program. I downloaded your EyestarPPC.zip file, extracted the files and when I ran the setup program I got the exact same error. The error goes on to say to check whether I need a 32 or 64 bit version of the software. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Keith

( REPLY )
- stevenh
  April 16th, 2020 - 09:39
  
  Unfortuantely, you wont get this driver running on Windows 7 (or higher.) You’d need to install an older OS, and I would be concerned that it wont work under windows XP either.
  
  ( REPLY )
  - Keith Seymour
    April 16th, 2020 - 23:47
    
    I tried running the setup file with administrator privileges and running it with Win95 compatibility to no avail. Unfortunately, I may be out of luck. I tried to buy a webcam but everything is sold out here unless you want to speed $199 to $999 … can’t do that! Thank you for replying!
    
    ( REPLY )