Thanks for your opinion. It's really nice summary.
I would like to add that for some gamers (including me) playing such games is also matter of:
a) challenge - because finishing them for today players is impressive achievement,
b) knowledge - for fans of crpg knowing those titles is like reading Iliad or Odyssey in the original; it isn't easy for sure, but it worth playing them if you want to know more about roots of your beloved genre and you're just curious enough to check how it worked in the past.

I had owned several of the D&D and Gold Box games back in the day, but I'd somehow missed Al Qadim. Your review was the one that made me want to buy it. Cheers for taking the time to write and share your thoughts.

You're asking the wrong person, as I've got no interest in owning or playing most of those, with the possible exception of the package containing Dungeon Hack (an early graphical Rogue-like) and Menzoberranzan...and even that I wouldn't pay much for. :) But it seems Leroux answered your question more than capably enough anyway. :)

I was just tossing out the list of games contained in all the various packages because I know a lot of people don't bother to check what's in each bundle, and it seems like every few months, someone still posts asking why GOG doesn't have Eye of the Beholder, or Dungeon Hack, or whatever. Even Engerek seemed surprised by how many games were included. I figured posting a list might alleviate some confusion for others. (It's part of a list I have sitting on my laptop for my own amusement and reference, so it just snipped the relevant part and dumped it here.)

I managed to beat the first Eye of the Beholder without doing any map notes. I don't think it's that hard of a game.
I love making maps in my head :) But even that is not really that necessary... Getting lost gives you random encounters, and lots of extra exp... Did get lost many times... But if you can accept that, it's a wonderful game.
I think there was some improvements regards directions in EotB2, can't remember how exactly, haven't played that in a while.
EotB1-2 games are really standing the test of time well in my opinion. I've heard the third one isn't that that much of classic, but dunno.

At the moment, I'm heading for Neverwinter Nights Diamond next!

Actually, I was wondering whether it would be fun for me to try and replay the games that way. IIRC though, the second had important plot items hidden behind secret walls, and if you draw maps, it's much easier to figure out where these walls could be.

Neverwinter Nights Diamond is an awesome game - if you ignore the official campaign, that is, and just play Hordes of the Underdark, or better yet, all the top rated custom modules. ;P

Funny, that's quite similar to my own reaction
80% is nice, but I already own the whole collection.

9 euros for the rest of the SSI D&D games was such a deal, that I finally topped off that collection.

In the end i just ask my friend who has maximum disount to gift me some of the needed games =)

For less than thirteen bucks, I can finish off the whole collection.

The problem is...

I would simply never play these games again. Some great memories there, but, man it's just... it's 2017. I can't play "Eye of the Beholder" again when I've got a big pile of RPGs made in the last few years sitting in my backlog.

This Stronghold: Kingdom Simulator is a nice little game. I had never played it before. It's really a pretty cool game, although the graphics may make you scream out loud. LOL. (early 1990's)

And it's a buck ($1.19). If you haven't tried this and liked games like HOMM you would probably like this. I know i was pleasantly surprised. Bought it this morning and have been playing it ever since.

I actually beat EOB for the very first time last year. Sure it hasn't aged well, but after playing it for an hour or so, my brain just adjusted to it all and it went like a charm.

As for EOB itself...I'd give it a 6/10. Good game but not fantastic - even for its time.

Thanks for the tips! :) I'll have lots of questing ahead, then. So far NND is proving to be more than I expected, sort of want to punch myself for not trying it before :)

About EotBs - it kinda required me to switch my brain to old school mode, and after that, nothing bothered me much :)

Thank you very much for your long and detailed answer!

I do not care too much about graphics. Most of these games still look better than some games which have been released more than 20 years later. But judging from the screen shots for me the graphics of the 2nd Forgotten Realms collection (which contains FRUA) looks like the oldest, compared to collection 1 and 3, and not like the most modern. Unfortunately GOG does not label the screen shots so you don't know which screen shot is from which game. Are there no screen shots from FRUA included? Or maybe only one, the completely blue one, which could come from a somewhat better graphics engine?

What I said about graphics only referred to the Gold Box games, that is Collection 2, not to Collection 1 and 3. Collection 1 and 3 have great graphics, IMO, except maybe for Menzoberranzan's outdated 3D view. The screenshots from FRUA are the ones with the grey marble frame, and honestly, default FRUA isn't the prettiest of the Gold Box games. But it has the most advanced engine, and what I meant about the graphics was that it allows for much more detail. See the first two attached images below for a comparison between Pool of Radiance (oldest Gold Box game, upper row) and FRUA (newest Gold Box game, lower row).

But the great thing about FRUA is that its graphics are customizable, by design and also via modding. So if you play hacked modules, it won't always look like in those first two images, instead it might even look like in the last two imaged I attached.