The games:
The French release of "100 Levels" only says "100 niveaux" on the box/CD (I believe it originally came in a big box, but I only got the disc in a jewel case). It includes "Rayman Par Ses Fans" and "Rayman 60 Niveaux Inédits". Each game is in its own folder, which contains the game data files (DOS) and a Windows installer front-end. For DOS-only installation, simply copy the entire directory onto the hard drive, then copy the batch files under "FR" to the main directory. You will also need the disk in the drive / mounted (unless you supply a cracked EXE). Both games are French versions only; the English language files are not included (you will get an error if you attempt to run with VER=USA). Also included are the Rayman Minigames and the "Making of Rayman 2" documentary. The main installer (RayForEv.exe) can be used to install both, or you can just browse the individual folders. All the videos, for instance, are QuickTime .MOV files under
MakingOf\Videos.
"Rayman Collector" includes all the above, and also the original Rayman (French version 1.21), Rayman Designer (with both English and French language files). The old "Rayman Designer" title screen is used, not the updated "Rayman Gold" one. A French PDF manual is also on the disc. It is the most complete edition of the first Rayman and all official, non-edutainment spinoffs. Pity it was never released worldwide in English.
The Dutch release of "100 levels" indeed includes the English version of both "Rayman By His Fans" and "Rayman 60 Levels". It can be identified by the title on the case being written in both languages - "100 levels / 100 niveaux". The disc itself is also distinctly different from the others and only says "Rayman" on it (but uses a unique color scheme, so you can differentiate it from the countless other releases). As far as I know, this is the only release that has all 100 levels in English (the later "Rayman Compilation" includes "60 Levels" but not "Rayman By His Fans"). A manual PDF is also on the disc - in Dutch only.
The elusive
Rayman Compilation disc (of which I could not obtain a copy, but there is an image on the Internet Archive) has "Rayman 60 Levels" (English), the Rayman 2 demo, Manuals in all languages, Rayman 2 theme for Win9x and two 800x600 wallpapers.
The levels:
In
Rayman Designer, the level names are part of the interface (just like the menus), so specifying a different version with VER= will change them. Also, when using VER=USA, QWERTY layout is assumed, but when using VER=FR, AZERTY layout is assumed; this affects cheat codes.
In "Rayman By His Fans" and "Rayman 60 Levels" - the names of the levels and their creators are encoded in the level files themselves. Specifying VER=xx changes only the menu language; to change the language used for the levels you really need the complete set of data and level files under the PCMAP directory. I wonder if the excellent
Rayman Control Panel works around this somehow.
The level files used in the English version of "60 levels" have a later date, 02/Nov/2000 versus 02/Aug/1999. I read in a different topic that the new version also fixes bugs in some levels, but I don't know which and where.
The music:
All 4 versions have 20 tracks total (19 audio tracks, missing the intro/outro). The French releases and Rayman Compilation are OK, but the Dutch release has the butchered tracks for Picture City and the Caves of Skops, which are just over a minute long (instead of 4+ minutes) and only include the main theme, and the Dream Forest track is completely gone, replaced by the ambience portion of the Caves of Skops. I understand that some versions of "Rayman Forever" exhibit the same problem. It is possible that this release simply inherited this bug, as it even uses RAYFAN for the disc volume label.
The bizarre:
The
Rayman Compilation CD contains a "FAN" directory (for "Rayman By His Fans"), which has the main program and other files,
but not the actual levels (so the game cannot be played). Did they run out of space on the disc or just forget to put them there???
The Dutch release of "100 levels" mentions the minigames and "the making of Rayman 2" on the DVD case,
but they are not there. This was clearly a last-minute blunder, since there is ample space on the disc.
Windows 10 Defender detects the UBISETUP.EXE on the French CDs as
Trojan:Win32/Dynamer!rfn. Probably a false positive. The file is 884,224 bytes long. The English (NL) release has a different version of UBISETUP - 722,432 bytes - which does not trigger the Defender.
The conclusion:
"Rayman Collector" is a near-perfect release the original Rayman 1 + expansions, if French works for you. It is not perfect, as the disc is missing the intro/outro audio tracks for the original Rayman. I understand that the "Rayman Platin Collection" is an equivalent German release.
For English - there is no perfect version. Closest would be to combine the original "Rayman Gold" release (
not the Focus UK version with no music) and the Dutch 100 Levels. But really it's better to just use
Rayman Control Panel.
P.S. I will be updating/correcting the wiki with some of the information I found in the course of this little research, when I have time.