Question:
do you need pencil and paper when playing this game for the first time ever?

how spoilish are the maps for the game? were they available for original players?

If i am to play something so ancient it would be the best if i played like it was nineteen eighty six

You will need some form of map. You can either draw your own, or use the ones in the cluebook, or find more detailed ones online. The maps in the cluebook are not fully spoilerish... they show where the walls, doors and secret doors are, but none of the "locations of interest", for example in towns the map doesn't say where the shops are.

Personally, I enjoyed drawing my own maps. If you would rather use the cluebook maps, you will probably still want to take notes about locations of interest and various quests you receive.

The cluebook was available back when the original game was released but I don't know if it was included with the game or if it was a separate purchase. Unlike later cluebooks (for the Xeen games, for example), it does NOT contain all the solutions to the game but does have several hints. The cluebook does, however, contain all the item information, which is quite nice because having to identify everything in-game is a huge pain and it can be very hard to tell which weapons and armor are better than others. If you search the PDF cluebook for the item in question you can avoid most spoilers; that's what I did.

Enjoy! The game is surprisingly immersive and fun for such an old game.

What software did you use to draw the maps when you were using the USB stick? I heard someone was using Excel or something and filling out the grid there.

It is definitely not possible on the NES version, as the game was saved to the cartridge, and NES cartridges are not hot swappable, not to mention that MM2 didn't actually see an NES release.

Note that, when transferring characters, stat and resistance bonuses from equipment become permanent, subject to the limits imposed on transferring characters. (Note that, for some races, the race's natural resistance doesn't even transfer fully, so new characters might have higher resistance than imported ones; the only way to permanently raise resistance in MM2 involves what could be considered an exploit.)

Also, the NES version has one flaw that can be very frustrating: Locust Plagues are ridiculously powerful in that game, being able to dealt 255 damage (= instant death) with their attack. To make matters worse, when this happens, the round would restart, and since Locust Plagues are really fast, they would probably kill another character before you get a chance to act. Repeat until entire party wiped out. Do you think this is fair?

It was a bit messy here. First I thought I'd do it on graph paper with pencil the old way. This turned out too tedious, so I switched to Excel. Turned out even more tedious, so I went back to pencil and paper.

So what I decided on is I'd do a quick sketch of a new area, then once I considered it to be "fully discovered", I'd switch to the Cluebook maps (as I said they were spoilerish). For few really maze-y areas, I'd just use the Cluebook straightaway.

One guy created a special software that's made for mapping those old games and posted it in the General Discussion. From the comments, everyone seems to be very happy with it. Here it is:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/grid_cartographer_v3_released
(The basic edition is free, the pro edition is very cheap if you play these games a lot).

I've actually seen that one but apparently the free version doesn't allow you to make your own notes, whihc is aproblem when you need to mark teleporter traps and so on, that's why I was wondering if you've found something better or used the old pen n paper graph. I'm probably going to use the paper route too.

Thanks! I was considering a digital way of mapping in case I lose the papers but then I realized I can always take a picture of them, so it's alright, and it's great when you have a keepsake of your adventures.

Yeah, it's cool that I still have a pad of graph paper full of my maps. I even continued to make hand-drawn maps in MM2, despite it having an auto-map feature, because I enjoyed it.

It also made losing a battle less harsh for me. I might have lost all my game progress since the last time I'd visited an inn, but I never lost the maps I'd drawn in that time.

I recently finished Wizardry 1-3 for the first time. After making some attempts with digital mapping, I decided to just use graph paper. I bought the kind with punched holes in it and then bought a small three-ring binder. I put the completed maps in the binder, and then I have them for the future if I ever want them again. :^)

That's really cool! :)

There's another option for auto-mapping (plus other great features) right here that I just started using, really pretty cool!

You, Sir, did it the proper way. Hats off to you.