how do i get mom?

• Units with different numbers of figures (and that been important in combat calculations).
• Small pool of heroes, but each one was charismatic and with its own set of abilities.
• Wizard creation (books and abilities picks).
• Magic schools and how they had really lots of non-direct damage spells.
• Races and their units, each one with a different feeling.

Ahh, i still remember, warax the chaos sorcerer, with 32 magic attack points. He could roflrape anything. Then i gave him 7 dark elf warlocks and preist for giggles. That stack killed everything on the surface world. Everything.

Don't do it.

I recently tried to play Fallout 2 and Starcraft becuause I had fond memories of them, but when I installed them I was appalled at the graphics and animation and resolution, they look absolutely decrepit.

You just can't play old games.

THe problems I have with MoM, Diplomacy aside, is that it needs DoxBox (cycles and all) and resolution is too small.

I was much, much younger at the time, but here's what I enjoyed...

• Distinct heroes -- I think these are what really drew me in, as it gave faces and a little personality to normally featureless units.  Battles with heroes in them made it feel like a little more was at stake, especially with their EQ.  I eventually got favorites that I tried to get everytime, and the limit placed on the number of heroes per game forced some planning into who I used at which parts of the game.
• Tactical battles -- MoM's biggest improvement over other strategy games I had played prior, the battles (and the ability to use magic in them) made me feel like I had lots of control over the outcome.  That being said, having the option to skip them would be nice too, as some were just a waste of time.
• The magic styles were so vastly different that the race / spell combinations resulted in different tactics each game, and there were a ton of viable strategies to use.
• Random world building
• Exploration was worthwhile at all phases of the game -- in the beginning, finding a cave with 100 gold was huge.  Later on, artifacts and spellbooks made exploration still lucrative. 

Apart from the improvements others have listed above (Especially the AI....ugh), I would've also liked the option to customize my opponents in a game.  Random was fine, but I think it would've been fun to set up challenges and pick my opponent's setups as well. 

Unique concepts of MoM

• pyramidal unit structure. The wide base are the most encountered typical units with the obligatory race flavour (hords early in the game), later you get to the early magic creatures and specialised city units (lesser herd), only very late in the game you get the likes of Paladins, Warlocks or Sky Drakes (rare creatures - and their "rarity" is perfectly timed). The timing is crucial for the game design and it works.

• multi-level strategy that leaves waste plains of content you may easily ignore (they are not crucial for winning), like city management, mana economy, diplomacy, terraforming, even spell research! - but if you feel like it you can explore them and benefit from them. It gives a great freelancer feeling (I can do what I want besides the obvious "save the world through conquest") to the strategy game.

• mathematical depth combined with easy concepts (heritage from Master of Orion I), so that everybody can play it (6 swords against 2 shields will be a slaughter) or big bang dispel, but there's a LOT to find out under the surface.

• 3 very different game stages (excellent design!). 1) Early game - you explore the world, early settlement, first hero, first contacts with AI (short peace), enemy = raiders and monsters, neutral cities. Big lairs with "Demon lords" and "Hydras" loom over your poor settlement.    2) Middle game - you conquer easy lairs, collect the loot, conquer the nasty lairs, get more heroes, you get to Myrror (or vice-versa)   3) Late game - you crush the AIs with all you collected and build in 1) and 2). Sometimes you crash the biggest lairs just for fun.  All three stages combined are incredibly rich and rewarding from the gamer's view.
  

• BTW, the spells are also influenced by it (and so are the heroes). Weapon immunity, Guardian wind are for the 1) - don't work against creatures. Magic immunity, Invulnerability and other Rare spells should save your skin against the big lair foes. Very rare spells should have been game-winners (it failed).

• Overpowered spells are incredibly fun to use and to win. The designers let the balance ideas intentionally loose, but at the end they failed to contain some of the cheasiest winning formulas... which is pity.
  

- Trolls that were massive and awsome and got up after being killed, not just some rubbish 5% health regen.

• The races played differently due to the buildings they had access to and the unique units.
• How each little guy in a unit actually represented a combatant.
• The enormous customization through spellbooks and special abilities.
• How you not only explored and conquered the overland map, but entered and explored parts of it through the tactical battles.

• "Blank Canvas" -- 
  • Customization/Player-Led Sandbox -- Master of Magic was in many ways a "blank canvas" containing generic races and an abstract background. This allowed the player to "invent" the world as if in sandbox of sorts. Imagination led the story, not the other way around.
  • Diversity -- While diversity caters to "blank canvas," it really is a feature all its own. The useful diversity (and not merely diversity for diversity's sake) of spells, wizards, races, and starting conditions added immense player-bred flavor and replayability. Some mistake repetition for diversity, but not Master of Magic.
  • Tiered Play -- Master of Magic successfully stacked layers upon layers of strong, well-designed elements upon each other, both literally and figuratively. Whether fighting above or below or attempting to balance magic vs. might, the many tiers of play are what ultimately made the game a legend.
  • Controlled Destiny -- Players were not forced by the whim of a narrow vision by developers. They could pursue an immense range of strategies but play each with a controlled and focused bent. 
• Balance --
  • "From So Humble a Beginning ... " -- The game was easy for a beginner to delve into but was fraught with anxieties for both new and experienced players alike. It achieved an impressive amount of tension (excepting AI weaknesses) in empire building, magical development, and even simple resource management. As important, it maintained a balanced tension across an entire game session.
  • Unpredictability -- A degree of randomness, such as with random maps, can lend an air of unpredictability and a lot of replayability in games. We all know this, but randomness can be destructive to a game's value as well. Master of Magic benefited from the random elements it provided but not so far as to diminish other areas, such as the "sandbox" traits it embraced.
  • Kinetic Play -- Master of Magic offered what I like to think of as "kinetic" play. The play is methodical, investment-centric, yet balanced. A player senses the distant energy he is building toward as a result of strategic thinking. This generates tension (of the very good kind) and later, great satisfaction when strategies come to fruition. It relies heavily on Sid Meier's notion of "a series of tough decisions" as the crux of a good game.
• Single-Player -- 
  • Retained Focus of Play -- I know some will scoff but I sincerely believe Master of Magic benefited from its existence as a single-player game. MP would have severely diminished aspects of the original that made those features so compelling.
  • Exploration -- Exploration of the type found in Master of Magic existed because a player could be more methodical and able to pursue strategies, including exploratory ones, that would almost certainly end in disaster during comparable MP games. (Take MP Civilization games by way of example.)

I don't think you can write the phrase "attention to detail" without missing some detail.

• The use of heroes.
• Having interesting abilities for heroes, and having heroes grow in experience and power.
• The ability to create equipment for heroes.