I was born in 84, so it was the mid ninties before I got into Might and Magic. I only ever played IV and V, although I did give VI some brief attempts, it wasn't as enjoyable as World of Xeen had been.

The appeal for me was the amazingly large world. I would watch my aunt and uncle play, and then eventually get a chance to play myself. I learned from them the importance of keeping notes, and as I got older I finally started compiling my own notes instead of just using theirs. For someone who had only played Master System or "Sega Genesis" games, the size and complexity of Xeen was simply astounding.

The coolest game element for me was looking at the printed map and attempting to journey from one city to another. Crossing a river, and entering a forested region meant I had strayed too far west and was going to die horribly. First I needed to travel through the eastern plains. Being given a mission that required I go to a particular city, was made all the more exciting when I saw just far away that city was from, and all the dangers and adventures I'd go on as I tried to get there.

For me the inclusion of a physical map truly capped off a great experience and got my imagination going in ways that a digital map simply couldn't have. And let's not forget the state of the art speech that was included in the game. Alas, most of the time the computer I was playing World of Xeen on simply didn't have the capabilities to play the speech audio correctly.

I do have a memory of waking up late one night to see my aunt playing Might and Magic. However it looked slightly different. I asked if it was World of Xeen and got told nope, this was a different Might and Magic game. Only then did I realise that Might and Magic was even larger then World of Xeen (this was before M&M VI had come out).

Now 13 years later I've purchased Might & Magic 6-Pack. I briefly opened MM1 and MM2, but they're simply too antiquated and unfamiliar to me. So I'm now playing MM3, the game I only ever caught a brief glimpse at during my childhood. In 2008 I began playing Dungeons & Dragons, so now I'm able to appreciate Might and Magic in a new way. It's quite clearly based on D&D with the premise being you play "a party of adventurers." But it allows the complexity of earlier editions of D&D to be hidden away behind a "you either hit or you miss" interface for both you and the enemies. It also makes all spellcasters spontaneous and thankfully avoids the Vancian magic system.

But the requirement from these games to make copious notes is still present. I largely play 4th edition, but some of my friends liked to play 3.5e and they tell me of how important it was in those earlier games to make extensive notes on everything. How it was important to map out the places you went yourselves, elements that are not encouraged in 4th edition. I've never complained about making such notes as a lot of 4th ed gamers do. I've just accepted that it's part of the game and is part of the enjoyment. My friends are always puzzled by this and say that I'm really a 3.5e gamer rather than a 4th ed gamer.

I disagree with this assertion. I much prefer 4th ed. I enjoy making those notes and pouring over them to find the single clue that will mean victory in the campaign. But I dislike the complexity of combat and levelling up in the earlier editions. And I've only now just realised it all comes back to Might and Magic. I became accustomed to the simple combat of these games as they hide much of the complexities, and levelling up is as easy as coming into town and paying the appropriate gold. But I do enjoy my notes. So I guess in truth I'm neither a 4th ed gamer nor a 3.5e gamer. I'm a Might and Magic gamer ;)

As such, I'm doing it old school as I play through MM3. I'm making my copious notes of equipment the age old way. I save the game, buy everything and then identify all of it before loading the saved game and actually purchasing what I need. I'm also making copious notes on quest information as well. I'm still in Fountains Head, but have already found 3 quests (one of which requires me to journey through the hidden valley which is infested with orcs). I'm thoroughly enjoying myself.

Of course, keeping copious notes in the past was always a problem for me as sorting them and ensuring they never got lost was all but impossible. Fortunately I've made some improvements over my note-taking abilities.

I'm writing my notes for all the items in a spreadsheet on my ipad. This way I get to keep the full screen mode of the game in addition to having my notes before me. I've got a different sheet for every type of item (weapons, shields, armor, helmets, cloaks, etc).

I'm hosting a mediawiki locally which I connect to through my ipad where I can keep all my notes on the various quests and locations. By using a wiki I can tidy my notes up after I'm done playing a session of MMIII through my PC browser, using the linking and easy creation of new pages to ensure that I can easily navigate to the information I need.

Although as I make my shopping lists, I do still use a pen and paper. This is just scrap paper that doesn't matter if I lose it 10 minutes after I finish making it.

Looking back at my gaming, I remember doing this sort of thing for other RPGs as well. Back when I first started playing Final Fantasy VII I would keep notes on all the items and where they could be found. I eventually stopped it as I realised it was pointless. It's fun to do this tedious but necessary part of the game. After all, back in the mid nineties I didn't have any access to the internet to simply download the equipment lists!

Might and Magic versus Dungeons and Dragons?

I'm a bit of a AD&D nerd myself. I grew up reading legacy copies of the rule books for first and second edition AD&D and I've never really lost the itch. Might and Magic really does have a lot of the better aspects of the earlier systems condensed down into a very user friendly (for the time) interface.

As for notes, well, I've got a binder that I keep handy with both graph paper and regular blank white paper (unlined) that I use for notes whenever I'm playing a game that needs them. It's a good system, and helps keep the feeling of playing the game old-school alive, even if it does cause all my friends to look at me weird when they see it. *shrug*

My background with Might and Magic is similar to the OP, in that I played Xeen first when I was much younger, and I'm now returning to the games with a new level of appreciation.

One thing I would recommend is to eventually try MM1 and MM2. When I bought the 6-pack here I decided I would go through them all in order, even if the first two games are really old and might be pretty annoying. And there certainly are annoying aspects of them, but I was surprised at how impressive the first two games were. Especially considering the technical restrictions of the time, they really managed to feel immersive in a way I was not expecting at all.

They require note-taking just like Xeen did, but they also require map-making. But it's not as bad as it sounds, as each area is a 16x16 grid, so one can easily make some nice annotated maps on graph paper. One thing I liked about this is sometimes I'd be exploring an area and I'd die, and have to go back to an earlier save (since you can only save at inns) but I didn't really lose that much because I still had the paper map I'd made.

I will admit, however, that I used the cluebooks for identifying items. I admire the OP's oldschool persistence in staying within the rules of the game, but in the first two games there isn't really a way to identify items in-game, so you kind of have to guess whether certain weapons are better than others, for example. Fortunately, the cluebooks (included in the extras here on GOG) have full item lists if the player (like me) doesn't want to deal with that.

The other thing I was surprised about in MM1 and MM2 was learning that while the games are mostly isolated from one another, there are certain plot elements and themes that carry over between games, and are really interesting to see as you play through in order.

So, when you're finished going through MM3-5 again, you might try your hand at the first two games and be pleasantly surprised!