Also, take a look at ShadowCaster. I think you'll like this one, OP, it's got the Eye of the Beholder view, you can change into various beasts AND it was published by Origin (R.I.P) and developed by none other than Raven Software.

How could I forget about The Legacy: Realm of Terror. This game is quite unique in that it's one of the few early-1990's games where you could change the layout of your entire game interface and it was the only horror-themed EoB style game that I can think of. It features just about everything you want in one of these games: tile movement, 90 degree turns, an automap, you can even interact with some objects that you find in a sort of adventure game way. There's even a sort of magic system in this game. The only small issue might be that the combat isn't the most tactical. It's mostly real-time-ish and you just click your chosen attack until the monster is dead. I highly recommend it especially since it came from the same company that made Darklands and Master of Magic.

One or the other. Hopefully the first, but I don't know yet. :)
MM1 is very antiquated. At first it was actually fun, but the endless grinding to get experience wore things down rather quickly.

As to the story, I guess there's a bit of one and it does start things rolling for the later games. To me, it seems rather haphazard and thrown together as the game was made and then they just stuck to it in later games.

*SPOILERS* You have aliens crash-landing their ship on the planet and their prisoner (Sheltem) escapes and impersonates the king. After you figure all that out, you discover there's a programmer in the inner sanctum and VARN (the planet) is just a test / game (gasp!).

I guess it does tie in to MM6, which has the aliens

That is not the only M&M game with a sci-fi element. It felt like many games that were created during the 80's liked to combine sci-fi & fantasy, just for the sake of it.

I know. Even some of the Ultima games had spaceships and blasters and Final Fantasy 4j/2e for SNES had you taking a spaceship to the moon. Many games liked to blur the line a bit, some more successfully than others.

I see that I didn't finish my thoughts about MM6, but I guess the point comes across anyway.

I felt very lost for most of MM1. The storyline was sparse, the manual was little help, and you couldn't actually *see* what was in a square unless it was something attacking you. Is the exit to the city here? Who knows? Go there and face the wall to find out.

For the nintendo DS i'd recomment Etrian odyssey. It's very old school and it's brilliant. You have to draw your own map, but the map drawer is included.

For the NDS there is also "The Dark Spire". VERY oldschool dungeoncrawler that even allows you to switch off the fancy graphics in favor of white vectors on a black screen ;)

Back in the day, Tony Crowther made a couple of shining examples of the genre.


Captive
- randomly generated levels
- sci-fi, based on planets & space stations
- progressive equipment & mobs (new items are still being introduced 12-15 planets (dungeons) in)
Amiga (winuae) version is the best

Knightmare
- traditional dungeon/caves
- characters are technically classless and progress according to how you play
- excellent puzzles
- Amiga winuae

I have to recommend several dungeon crawlers: Stonekeep, Lands of lore, Realms of arkania(mainly 3.).

Non-GOG games - Wizardry VIII - last of them, but the best of them.

Albion - look at it, it's just beautiful! Fantasy&Scifi merged in realy good manner - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCcwb_sJgg8&feature=relmfu

Brány Skeldalu (The Gates of Skeldal) - well, it's czech dungeon crawler, but there should be some translation. And its free. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP2mdKTahUo&feature=relmfu

Frayed knigts is 2011 game, but it's like indie Wizardry VIII - there is a demo - http://rampantgames.com/frayedknights/

Also, there is a czech dungeon crawler Cardhalia, but I am afraid, there isn't translation :( - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrPDBOaUqFs

So many great recommendations. Looks like I won't see the light of day for a couple years at least. ;)

Since Arx Fatalis has been mentioned, don't forget the Ultima Underworlds. They're not tile-based but apart from that pretty close to the classic Dungeon Crawlers like DM, EOB, M&M, Wizardry series etc. More so than games like Realms of Arkania, Albion or the D&D Goldbox series, who feature 3D dungeons but isometric / 2D turn-based combats. (They're still great, too, though.)

Then there are also the Elder Scrolls games, Arena and Daggerfall (not tile-based either).

Here are some more potential candidates, but quite old ones and I'm not really familiar with them: Xenomorph, Amberstar, Bloodwych, Hired Guns, Captive, Dragon Wars, Legend of Faerghail, Black Crypt (Amiga only)

And a couple of recent indie games: Frayed Knights - The Skull of S'makh-Daon (similar to Wizardry 8), and Malevolence: The Sword of Ahkranox, and The Legend of Erthia (the latter two still being in development).

For the Dungeon Master freeware remakes there are several user-created dungeons / campaigns, too.

Get the Might and Magic 6-pack. MM3-5 are my faves of the genre after Lands of Lore.