i didnt keep track of the time, but i think it was over a year.
1 is ok for the time. One interesting game aspect was HP goes up the longer you stay in a dungeon. So you work it up so you can go deeper.
2 is bad, plays like 1 but the quest and areas are horribly designed. Pretty much used a walk though on this to get through.
3 I liked this one, added a playable group and plays like a standard rpg of the time.
4 this one is also good, and of course added new gameplay for the time. Where you perform tasks to become the avatar in all of the virtues.
i think i like 5 the best, i like the turn based battles over the real time that would start to come with 6. Also mixes the 3d dungeons with 2d rooms.
6 pretty good, but i think the battles are weaker then the previous. Graphically nice, although i wish the view would have been larger.
7 graphically gorgeous, real time battles
Serpent Isle, ive actually been a little bored with it. Ive made it through the second town recently. Might get back into it.
8 messed around a little. My plan was once i was done with SI to setup Pentagram for the pandora.
9 ill have to play on my PC
If anyone didnt know all of these are on gog.com. There is also an excellent patch system that can bring the older titles to much nicer conditions (i.e VGA) without effecting original gameplay.
Another interesting fact is that i didnt have to map any of the dungeons on paper. I was either able to memorize the little i needed or i could use a map spell to see a map in game to get where i needed to go. Also there are spells to up/down. So really if i knew level 1 then i could get out.
Thanks to gog im also now working through M&M and Wizardy
Those i have to map, which a bought a nice app that comes on android. So i play on the pandora and map on the tablet. I bought the famicom versions of the wizardy 1-3 and im playing my rom dumps in nes.emu. Finished 1 so far. Interesting fact of these games is that they actually come with switches for languages (japanese or english). I went with the nes versions since the dos versions sound dreadfully difficult (perma death), with save states I can bend this rule