I loved M&M 3,4,5 and 6 and I tried 1 and 2 but I don't know how to begin.
can anyone give me some tips?

When making your party mix them up between good, neutral, and evil. Also male and female. A couple of females helps you against certain monsters etc. Good and evil helps with different spells and items I believe. I did not play 1 yet,..am currently on 2.

Use the pre-generated party in MM1. It is a well balanced party, with good stats. And they start with more money and equipment than rolled characters.

Explore carefully. AFAIK the game is completely area scaled (monster levels are based on area, not your party's level), while MM2 is a mix of area scaling and level scaling.
So if you find monsters too tough in one area, try another.
The first five or so levels are hardest.
The safest places to explore first is the starting town Sorpigal, its dungeon and the area outside. The areas north and northwest of the Sorpigal area is also not too tough.
There is no automap, so mapping is recommended.

MM2 is very hard in the beginning, so bring over your characters from MM1.

Both games are quite unlinear and there is no hand holding, so be careful where you explore.

Your goal in the beginning is gaining XP, levels and better equipment so you can survive longer trips. Don't forget to search after a successful battle, if your party is injured heal or even rest before opening.
You can go back into the inn and save after each successful battle, the old M&Ms weren't made for playing ironman.

^^This, times one-thousand.

I haven't made it very far into #1 myself, but I spent ages whittling down my party by not knowing enough to search after every fight. I was wondering why I couldn't find any money or items. :P

Also, for #1, either be willing to hand-map as PetrusOctavianus said, or get to a site with some handy maps, if you're willing to spoil some elements. I'm not, so it's the GIMP and a hex grid for me.

And lastly, this thread might help if you find #1 too fast: http://www.gog.com/en/forum/might_and_magic_series/mm1_read_this_if_you_think_the_text_appears_too_fast/page1

I hex-edited the .exe and it works perfectly now. No more missing those vital battle messages. :)

Note: This is from memory, so a few details could possibly be off.

#1) Make good characters according to the manual. I always did: Knight, Paladin, Cleric, Archer, Sorceror, Robber -- but I've heard of other good builds.

#2) Leave Middlegate Inn and take turn right. Step once to the east. Turn right. Step to the south. Tada! Insta-map! It lasts until you rest.

#3) Go die a few times to learn about the city. There's an area in the northeast that you can't go to. There's a few buildings you shouldn't enter. But you should learn where the colloseum is, the training center, the temple, the tavern, the inn and the weapon-smith and a quest-giver. Don't buy the mage's guild access yet.

#4) Get decent weapons and armor and at least one green ticket from the weapon maker. Then go back to the inn to save your game.

#5) Go to the colloseum and fight. You'll get money and XP.

#6) If you're badly damaged and your clerics are out of spell points, go to the fountain of clairvoyance (step 2) and rest, then drink the fountain.

#7) Use your colloseum winnings to get more green tickets and better weapons and use the money to train your guys. Once your wizard hits a few levels, it might be a good time to buy a mage's guild access.

#8) Once you have 3 or 4 levels under your belts, you should be able to get the quest and perform it fairly well. That quest leads to another quest to get 2 decent hirelings. You might want to use some more green ticket-gold-xp times before going down to do that one.

#9) If you have a fair amount of gold, check with the weapon smith every day to see if he has any daily specials that are quite spectacular.

#11) Go on the roads and look at your surrounding. You'll see 2 castles and another town on this side of the road. If you go off road, prepare to fight.

#10) Options: Make some serious XP or go to Tundara. If you want a lot of XP, you can find a guy named Mark looking for keys just off the road to Tundara.

SPOILER (read backwards) eltsaC ydobaeP ot esolc ardnut eht ni erehewemos detacol era syek siH

You can get the keys over and over and over to get your guys up a couple levels quickly.

#11) You can then hit Tundara and the other towns. Perform quests you see, write down any clues or signs you find. Hopefully, that will be enough to get you along your way.

#12) If you haven't yet, read the manual. The background story about how the world was made and how everything became the way it is today is important. A brief summary:

- A bunch of elementals combined to make the world.
- Dragons were bad.
- The MegaDragon was killed by King Kalohn and now the world is as it is. But the weapon used to kill the dragon is gone.

Everyone's advice has been great so far, but I just wanted to add that you absolutely must read the manual, if you have not done so yet. There really is no way to figure out how to play without reading it thoroughly. And be ready to draw maps by hand (although that's technically no longer necessary in MM2).

The early game is the hardest. Use all the spells you have, even ones that sound crappy. The sorcerer has a defensive spell that will remain active until you rest; you should probably have it on at all times. The sleep spell is very useful in early fights. And as others already said, be sure to search after each fight (the "S" key). If you are hurt, you can rest first, but you must search before you leave the space your party is on, or you will lose the treasure! You will die fairly frequently so be sure to return to the inn to save often. After you've gained a few levels and gotten some better equipment things will be a little easier. Also, at higher levels your spellcasters will get MUCH more useful, making fights and even things like traveling around much easier.

I have been using a ninja in 2 instead of a robber. He is a good thief with special items and is one of my best fighters.

I have to agree with this. As soon as I stepped out, half of my party was knocked unconscious from a group of cripples, then I went inside a tavern and got attacked by a group of Mini T-rexes.

There is level scaling in MM1. Many random encounters will start to get harder as you're at higher level, but usually it's not too big of a deal... once you're high enough level to win most of the fights in a given area, you'll be fine even if the fights start to scale up a bit. It just keeps things interesting so you're not steamrolling really easy enemies all the time. There are also many battles that are fixed encounters, and the scaling varies greatly by location. Some locations probably don't have any scaling, others will always be pretty easy even if the enemies scale up a bit for a high-level party, and certain areas will always be quite tough.

There may have been some level scaling in MM2 also but I'm not sure.

When you can get to Dusk (sooner rather than later if you're VERY thorough about exploring Sorpigal) the Blacksmith sells Skill Potions. they aren't cheap, but they often have several uses each.

Very helpful for grinding, especially if you like grinding the wyverns in C3. Also good in emergencies.