Sorry for bumping a very old thread but this is very relevant for me as I am in the same situation now :-) I just finished MM1 and MM2 and when I read the MM3 manual (which only covers story and some really basic and incomplete tips) and started the game, I really felt like I'm lacking crucial information. Not just the UI and controls (which can be learned by trial and error or from the web linked in this topic) but also some detailed information which was present in MM1 and MM2 manuals - like detailed information about secondary skills (e.g. you need mountaineering and pathfinding on 2 characters, crusader on all characters unlike MM1 and MM2 etc.), about spells, saving/loading process, automap, quests etc.

Now there is a suggestion here to read World of Xeen manual, but:
1) I don't want to read any story spoilers there (if there are any).
2) I don't know if all the information there is also valid for MM3 (if some rules or mechanics changed or there are some new things in WoX, it would just confuse me ;-) ).

I tried to google the manual (thinking that maybe GoG version is cut out) but it really seems like the manual here is the only one. So I have the same question as the author of this thread - how had the people played it back then when the game was released?

Any tips other than "just play the game and figure it all out"?

A few important things to know about MM3:
* The Walk on Water spell is only available to Druids and Rangers, and it's rather important given that the game world consists of a bunch of islands surrounded by water. (A Ranger is good enough for this purpose.)
* I don't consider Mr. Wizard to be cheating, but be aware that using it costs a level (and a level's worth of XP) from each of your characters.

Some differences:
* MM3 has a few spells that aren't in World of Xeen, like Half for Me (which isn't as good as it should be to be for normal usage, but has an exploit attached that can cause an integer overflow).
* One change is that, in MM3, Recharge Item works on any item, while in Xeen it doesn't work on potions, scrolls, or any item that casts the "Recharge Item" spell.
* The World of Xeen manual fails to mention that Raise Dead, Resurrection, and Divine Intervention cause aging, and that Resurrection will lower the target's Endurance permanently. These drawbacks do occur in both games, but only the Isles of Terra manual actually mentions these drawbacks. All of them.

There's no limit on the number of secondary skills you can give a character, unlike in MM2.

By the way, a few other MM3/Xeen differences:
* MM3 has hirelings, Xeen does not.
* In MM3, visiting a store takes an hour, but in Xeen it takes a full day.
* MM3 has alignment, while Xeen does not.

This is one of the issues I have with these games; the game doesn't tell you how much damage you deal, and HP is not visible on the main screen. It's one thing that's a huge step down from MM2. That is a good idea if it's your first playthrough, but you can actually skip this if you're familiar with the game, as there's another way to get Thievery. (Note that this is not the case in World of Xeen; in Swords of Xeen, it is the case, but you don't really need Thievery in that mess of a game.)

ZFR from 2012 visited me today and says he appreciates your responses.
Did you check the menu on the left of this link?
http://shrines.rpgclassics.com/pc/mm3/general.shtml

It has information on secondary skills, spells, status ailments.... etc. Just ignore the ones which have spoilers like Puzzle Spoilers and Walkthrough

Aside from that, play and enjoy. MM3 was my favourite of the first generation MM games (1-5).

Great, thank you!

I don't remember 1 and 2, but I can answer 3.

Maximum HP is actually a derived stat in this game. Given a character's other parameters (race, class, current Endurance, secondary skills, current Level), it is possible to determine a character's maximum HP. This has some implications:
* It doesn't matter where you train, and there's no RNG involved with hit point growth. The only catch is that each training center has a limit to how high you can level up, and once you reach it, you need to find a better place to train.
* If your level or Endurance changes, so will your maximum HP. This means that, if a fountain gives you 20 temporary levels, you also get 20 levels worth of maximum HP until it wears off.
* This means that a loss of level or Endurance (perhaps that fountain wore off?) can result in a character's current HP being above its maximum; if the gem beneath the character's portrait turns silver, this is a sign that this has happened. (There are a couple other ways this could happen, like if you drink from an HP fountain, or if you're exploiting a quirk of the Half for Me spell.)
* Worth noting that training costs scale quadraticly with your level, so training to high levels can get very expensive. (This becomes a huge problem late in World of Xeen, to the point where you're going to run out of money long before you run out of XP. Note that the training mechanics are the same between these two games.)

In summary, the only thing you need to worry about training, other than the cost and time, is that you will eventually need to go to other towns to train higher; it doesn't otherwise matter where you get the levels.

for #1 yes the skill is always in effect as long as the character(s) that have the skill arent all dead, turned to stone, eradicated (or unconscious maybe not sure on this one)
though instead of walking thru the wall you have to bash it to break it

#2 there are walls that have writing on them that you can only see by looking right at them up close.
i dont remember if there is anything else that required looking in a specific direction.

Thank you very much, guys. This looks like there was some serious improvement in quality of life in this installment :-)

You're welcome, except that I'm not a guy.

By the way, the Wizard Eye spell also makes it obvious where there are false walls, as real walls now take up an entire square.

Sorry :-)
And thank you again.

you are welcome
i hope you have fun

I definitely have fun! :-) This is so much better than MM1 and MM2 in every aspect. Big improvement. It seems the skill for sensing secret doors works every time, so no more bashing into every wall (saves a lot of time). Turning to all sides is gone also, the only thing (as already mentioned) is writings on the walls - for that thing I indeed have to turn to all walls, but since there are no more annoying random monsters spawns on moving and turning (like in MM2) it is not really an issue for me.

Automapping is a bit better (in comparison to MM2) but still not ideal. A possibility to enter my own notes into map would be so useful. Is this feature present in later installments? At least this map shows objects (like huts, towns etc.), so it is usable and I only use Notepad for notes (this saves me a HUGE amount of time in comparison to MM1 and MM2 where I drawn maps by hand).

One thing is bothering me howerer. There are no rows in combat anymore, everyone is always in melee range. How the heck am I supposed to keep my Sorcerer alive? :-) It has been a bit better lately (my party members have now levels 7-8, so they have more HPs and I prioritize my Sorcerer when I get any magical gear increasing AP) but in the beginning this was pain, my Sorcerer kept getting one shot all the time.

Also when I cast Protection spell against an element, is it shown anywhere? Cleric at the end of Ancient Temple of Moo kept killing my party with his Lightning, then I tried it with casting Protection against Lightning (or Electricity or whatever it is called in the game) before combat and it seemed to be working tremendously, the fight was suddenly very easy. But I could not see the effect anywhere - even when I clicked on Resistences in character sheet of any character, resistence against Lightning was quite low (like 7). This confused me. Also is my impression correct? Are these spells worth it? (in MM1 and MM2 I had a habit of casting all buff/protection spells after every rest, but this is no longer possible/relevant here except for Levitate and Wizard Eye)

This is unfortunately one flaw in both this game and the Xeen games; there's no way to have high HP characters protect low HP ones.

It's worth noting that there are enemies that specifically target characters of a certain race or class, and will always attack such characters if possible (though they won't target unconscious characters).

I don't remember if you could see the effect in MM3, though I know you can in the Xeen games.

Protection spells are worth it in this game. If you can reduce the damage you take to 0 with the help of protection spells and/or Power Shield, you also prevent status ailments from enemy attacks. If an enemy is instantly killing your characters, try casting Power Shield on everyone. (There's one enemy type I'm thinking of in particular; frustratingly unfair if you don't use the spell, and harmless (at the level you'd likely be at that point) if you are.)

Also, AC is useless except against enemies that do physical damage. Each enemy does only one type of damage, so if you're fighting enemies that don't do physical damage, you can ignore AC and spells that boost it.

It's like I'm hearing myself from 10 years ago. I had a blast playing this first time.

As dtgreene said, unfortunately there is no way to protect certain party members. All are in front.

By the way, my biggest gripe about this game compared to MM1/2, is the lack of shortcuts for spells. In the previous one, you had to use numbers, and pretty soon you memorised the most common ones used (I even created macros for the extra keys on my keyboard). In this one, it becomes tedious if you have to click on them one by one.