Since this is coming from a gaming perspective ("must play" titles), there's no reason to not just drop the whole lot and get a PowerPak/Everdrive instead. As you said, you're a hardware guy. No need to waste the extra space on tapes.
Hello DorkOverlord. That's quite the scope for collecting. I would love to collect for MS-DOS but I don't have the room to start up (and I don't have any of my old gear.) Welcome aboard!