For me, this was the real start of PC gaming. I had played a couple of helicopter battle flight sims, and a couple of RPG-based efforts on the computer. But, not until X-Wing burst on the scene did I start caring about things like video cards, memory, bus speed, processor speed. Granted back then 640x480 on your 12-15" CRT monitor was as good as it got. However, things progressed pretty quickly from there, especially when 3-d effects started showing up in later iterations.
The game itself, man I played it for hours on end. This was Star Wars man, and I was flying an X-Wing! What could be cooler than that? I did the practice course until I had beaten all of them, and got an acceptable time on even the hardest one. I did the solo missions (watching the launch animation every time because it added to the experience), and the squadron missions that required a little more strategy, and finesse', including command other ships to stand-off, and others to attack. Whether it was clearing a mine field, or taking out a capital ship, I just kept playing, and having a fantastic time!
At some point, I realized that the progression of missions was heading us inevitably towards to the campaign against the Death Star, and it was exciting! I had dreamed of doing this mission myself for over 10 years by this point! I was teased with attacks on surface features, and defending squadrons of fighters, but finally when they had sufficiently whipped the anticipation into a frenzy, we came to the actual Trench Run!
It was enthralling, exhilarating, exciting, and overwhelming all at the same time! The game did a decent job of presenting the awesome scale of the Death Star, and made the mission challenging to the point where it was certainly not a sure thing that you would win. In fact, it took a few tries before I was able to actually succeed!
When it was over, and the animation showed my character receiving the medal for heroism, I felt like it was really happening, and that was what has stuck with me all these years about this game. These days, it has been made compatible for use on modern hardware, and O/Ss via Steam, or from GoG.com (Good old Games) pretty cheap. Of course I grabbed it, and ran through a lot of the game again. You know what? Despite the archaic graphics, the game actually holds up pretty well!
I have nothing by fond memories of this game, and I can relive them at any time, thanks to GoG!