gscotti: So.... the installer I just downloaded doesn't do jack, compared to the old one? Is there any benefit at all from using it instead of the old one?

BlackChar: If by "old one", you mean the 1.x version, then there are several differences:
- DOSBox was updated to 0.74
- They got rid of GOGwrap.exe and now stick to windows shortcuts for starting the game
- DOSBox configuration is now split between multiple files (which makes it easier to setup globally)
- There's now Start menu link for DOS-based setup.

It's nothing major though. I've been using old installer on Windows 8 for a while and haven't run into any trouble, so I'm not quite sure if it was updated for compatibility reasons.

CRW: I will try helping you out. It will involve some work, but hopefully you (and anyone affected) can get a proper working copy of HoMM1.

First, there're some files to download.
1. Pick up 16bit Stereo Music from this thread, courtesy of BlackChar.
2. Get the movies from here. I uploaded these movies from my GOG HOMM1 installation (I hope they won't ban me for that). The password is gogcom
3. Install GOG HOMM1 normally. Now open the installation folder and create a new folder named DISC. Inside of it you should create HEROES folder. Open it and extract the movies into it. If done correctly, they should be under DANIM folder, so in general you should have DISC\HEROES\DANIM containing all the movies.
4. Now in the DISC\HEROES you should also create a SOUND folder, that will contain all the music files uploaded by BlackChar. I don't know if he retained the folder structure, but make sure the sound files are under DISC\HEROES\SOUND.
5. In your HOMM1 installation folder (if done with default settings) you should have a SETUP.EXE file and a Dosbox folder containing DOSBOX installation. Open a new window with this DOSBOX folder view, then drag and drop the SETUP.EXE from HOMM1 folder onto DOSBOX.EXE. This should open HOMM1 configuration.
6. In the configuration dialogue, press buttons in the following order: 1, 8, 3, 4. This will make HOMM1 use 16bit STEREO music.
7 Open notepad and drag and drop the homm.conf file. Scroll it down until you will find
[autoexec]
Below that there should be a line starting with imgmount d [blahblah]. I am not sure about that one, as I changed my HOMM1 installation to my tastes.
8. Change that imgmount d line into
mount D .\DISC\ -t cdrom -label HEROES and save it.
9. Check if your HOMM1 has sound and intro movies. If everything was done properly and I haven't screwed anything in my guide.

If you have any questions, shoot.