Help me complete my collection! info needed

[Thrylos]

Hello everybody, this is my first post here and I am so happy to have found you!

Heroes of might and magic is probably my favourite game of all times. It obviously has to do with the fact that it is the first game I really liked...
Back in 1996, I was 11 years old (now 23!) and I had gotten my first computer (a pentium 90mhz!) and heroes 1 was the first game that I really loved! Back then I didn't have the funds to buy any game I wanted, so I remember playing that demo that had 40days (ingame days) limit tons of times (and always trying to be able to build the highest tier building and try the strongest creature in wach castle beofer time ended lol). Then some friend bought the game and I settled with playing many hours of hot seat with him...
Heroes of might and magic 2 was the first game of the series I actually bought from the first day it was available! Boy how many hours I spent on this game....the most of any heroes game out there...(and probably any game I ever played). I also bought heroes 3 of course when it came out....and lastly heroes 4 which had a huge interval from heroes 3 in time (probably because 3do died?). Then sometime I got the winds of war expansion jsut to try the online multiplayer, and that's it. It seems I kind of lost my appetite for HOMM after heroes 3, maybe I grew up, it was also this huge interval between 3 and 4, maybe cause 4 was kinda disappointing...maybe and probably a mixture of the above! Imagine I didn't even buy homm5 when it came out because I wasn't much into gaming and I also didn't like the 3d idea..

So this brings us to TODAY! after so many years I got some nostalgia and decided to try to acquire all heroes games I don't have to complete my collection. Simply for old time's sake, play them a little to remember the good times....and also have them on my bookcase to remind me of good old times!

I know today you can get the Heroes Complete edition that has every game in the box, but from a collector's point of view (and since I already got some of the original pieces) I wanted to have each game in its original form when it was released, not some gold edition with expansiosn packs included or any best seller versions with jsut the CD and a small manual.
So for the last couple of days I am scanning ebay to find my missing pieces in their original boxes, which is something not very easy...

And here is where I mostly need your help!
I would like to know if you got any information on the pieces I am missing, which have a big-box version, what should be included and stuff, if there are any "collector's" editions that got more stuff in the box that I should know of and prefer if i can find them etc. First of all let me give you a list of what I got and what I am missing (the ones with a - in front of them are the missing ones) :

- Heroes I
Heroes II: The Succession Wars
- Heroes II: The Price of Loyalty (Expansion Pack)
Heroes III: Restoration of Erathia
- Heroes III: Armageddon's Blade (Expansion Pack)
- Heroes III: The Shadow of Death (Expansion Pack)
Heroes IV
- Heroes IV: The Gathering Storm (Expansion Pack)
Heroes IV: The Winds of War (Expansion Pack)
- Heroes V
- Heroes V: Hammers of Fate (Expansion Pack)
- Heroes V: Tribes of the East (Expansion Pack)

Yesterday I bought this version of Heroes 1 :
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... Y.m238.lVI

It looks in good shape and it is the win95 version which as I read somewhere has the sounds in audio format (like heroes2) which is great!
What struck me odd is that while searcing for heroes 1 I found several different CD colors. Some were yellow like this one I bought, some blue and others red! weird....anyone know anything about this? hope color doesn't matter.

So now I am mostly looking for the rest, which is the expansions from heroes 2-3-4 (except winds) and all pieces of heroes 5!
Can anyone tell me ay stuff I need to know while searching for these?
For example I remember that the winds of war expansion I got is in a DVD case (cheapie stuff) while not being a best seller version or something...was there ever a box kind of version? Is there one for "the gathering storm" that I should look for, or was it originally released in dvd-case too? I think that from homm4 and after when Ubisoft took over, they kind of neglected the fan factor and released small cheap boxes. Then on homm5 they did some collector/super collector/deluxe/limited thingy on the main game just to create fuss (but actually this is worse for the true fan) and then released the expansions in dvd cases again? Based on this logic, the expansions I miss from homm 2 and 3 should all come in big boxes right?
Also my homm4 version is in a box and not dvd case but a very small one (liek 2 dvd boxes together) including the discs and a small manual and creature list. Was there every a more proper/big version?

I remember opening homm2 case which had the name glyphed and shiny and finding that superb 120page manual, and the illusrated creature list and being 13 years old I was practicaly sleeping with it... and now they release everything in cheapie dvd box cases???

Well, sorry for the huge post, this game has many feelings for me. If anyone can elp me complete the collection please reply!

[HodgePodge]

… I remember opening homm2 case which had the name glyphed and shiny and finding that superb 120page manual, and the illusrated creature list and being 13 years old I was practicaly sleeping with it... and now they release everything in cheapie dvd box cases???

Yeah, the gaming industry isn't what it used to be … in fact just about anything you buy these days is cheap & shoddy. A while ago I went to get some band-aids. Remember those wonderful reusable little tins they used to come in? Not anymore! Just a shabby box which wouldn't keep your bandages sterile like the old little tins did. I'm just reminiscing & rambling. Good luck finding all your missing games in the original packages and with the original manuals & charts.

[gravyluvr]

I think that there is a version Heroes of Might and Magic 5 that has ALL of the GAMES.

[Trevor]

I think that there is a version Heroes of Might and Magic 5 that has ALL of the GAMES.

Not quite. It has King's Bounty hidden in the file structure, but no documentation.

It has HOMM 1-3, but no music!!!!!

It has none of the Chronicles.

[Ya5MieL]

Poster clearly said that he doesn't want any compilations, he wants good old card-box editions of the games (well, those that had it in the first place).

It seems he is not interested in heroes chronicles games as well. Unfortunately old card-box editions are hard to come buy and i can only wish him luck in finding everything.

[gravyluvr]

Oops...

But I thought that there had been a special release for HOMM5 that had a little more to it than that.

Ebay... Although I don't really see how your going to obtain the really early editions. I'm not selling mine!

[maygwan]

theres actually a boxset out which gives you all the heroes games and expansions. You also get some tarot cards a cool fan art book a t shirt and posters some other cool stuff. I live in the uk and purchased it from pc world for £34.99.

[UndeadHalfOrc]

Did it come with ALL THE CD MUSIC?

[UndeadHalfOrc]

in fact just about anything you buy these days is cheap & shoddy. A while ago I went to get some band-aids. Remember those wonderful reusable little tins they used to come in? Not anymore! Just a shabby box which wouldn't keep your bandages sterile like the old little tins did. I'm just reminiscing & rambling.

Truer words have never been spoken...

I happen to be a hardcore Lego collector. I collect all original Lego boxes that the sets come in with. Lego boxes from the 70's, 80's and 90's were very thick and sturdy and had these awesome plastic trays that you could use to sort your Legos in. The boxes also had a front cover flap that opened, with the top part showing awesome photos of the models you could build, and the box itself had a transparent cellophane sheet showing the bricks inside.

Now all Lego sets come in big, empty, cheaply made, easily crushed boxes with no trays inside - just the legos in plastic bags. No foldable front cover either.

[maygwan]

Did it come with ALL THE CD MUSIC?

i just checked an no i don't think it did it has all 5 heroes games and all the expansions.
The art book is amazing so are the posters ect.

[wzrdmstr]

There is a whole history from which Heroes is but an offshoot. It started with a game called MIGHT & MAGIC which was written for very early Commodore 64 and Apple and believe it or not, is still available in a 5 game set with a program called MO' SLO to adapt it for play on a modern PC. (back in it's original release days, the game was on several 5 1/4 " floppy disks and computers were limited to 64kb operating capacity)

The game was phenominal for it's time...a massive maze that required the player to create up to 6 characters for his party and battle his way through the maps to solve the riddles of the game. Personally, I had to map out on graph paper the many 64 x 64 grids of all the different towns, castles, dungeons and terrains just to keep track of it all. (Still have the notebook, somewhere) Though more like a computerized "Dungeons and Dragons with a strange twist," these early games (M/M 1-3) were the foundation for the Heroes games. And as technology improved, the games grew in complexity, graphics, animation, etc. But the core concept followed a timeline and series of worlds that became it's own mythology.

There is a very good history for the genesis and development of Might and Magic as well as Heroes of Might and Magic on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_World_Computing

Last summer I was still able to add Might and Magic 7 & 8 in original boxes to my collection, as well as finding Might & Magic 6 and Legends of Might & Magic without the original package by searching Ebay and Amazon. Follow the links for UBISOFT and 3DO in the Wikipedia article for other titles. Hope this helps in your quest!

[Sir Alock]

I own every version of the HoMM series. Like you, HoMM1 was my very 1st software game I owned. I was 30 back then & could afford to buy pretty much anything. I have both versions of HoMM1 (DOS & Win95). In addition I own all of the strategy guides for every game (even HoMM5) Since HoMM3 I decided to buy the guides even though I didn't need to.

I also bought a copy of the original Kings Bounty w/ the 3.5 diskette! Just one diskette did it! The box & manual are all in mint condition! I found that on ebay about 8 or 9 years ago.

I'm happy with my collection & wouldn't sell it for the world. BTW...The original color of the CD for HoMM1 was blue.

[MadMax]

I think that there is a version Heroes of Might and Magic 5 that has ALL of the GAMES.

Yes it is and I have it it also includes loooads of other stuffs like t-shirt and tarot-cards and soundtacks and stuff!

[MadMax]

in fact just about anything you buy these days is cheap & shoddy. A while ago I went to get some band-aids. Remember those wonderful reusable little tins they used to come in? Not anymore! Just a shabby box which wouldn't keep your bandages sterile like the old little tins did. I'm just reminiscing & rambling.

Truer words have never been spoken...

I happen to be a hardcore Lego collector. I collect all original Lego boxes that the sets come in with. Lego boxes from the 70's, 80's and 90's were very thick and sturdy and had these awesome plastic trays that you could use to sort your Legos in. The boxes also had a front cover flap that opened, with the top part showing awesome photos of the models you could build, and the box itself had a transparent cellophane sheet showing the bricks inside.

Now all Lego sets come in big, empty, cheaply made, easily crushed boxes with no trays inside - just the legos in plastic bags. No foldable front cover either.

Soo true :/ Old Lego <333