[quote=Sigma One] 

TIE Fighter. 

Being young and into Star Wars was probably the best catalyst for this. I remember getting it and my buddy would come over and we'd double-team it, one would pilot and one would manage targeting, radar, etc.  

It actually had a bunch of extras if you searched for them, a great storyline, and some awesome graphics for its time. 
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I agree. If you include the original XWing. Those two were probably as perfect as it gets. Top quality production and video, enough complexity to keep things interesting and a little cerebral. The power distribution control was a stroke of genius giving many tactical options to the game, transfer power to the engines at the cost of guns and shields and you can make a fast get away but are completely defenceless for instance. When going into a mission their is a genuine story that makes you care. A star destroyer is not just a star destroyer, it has a name and you really feel like it has a history and feel to it. Its one of the few games where I felt like their were people manning the enemy ships that were thinking about what they were doing, but that was probably my imagination running away.     Certainly in later missions when the "new" calamari cruisers joined the alliance and we (notice how I identify) finally got something to go up against the imperial heavies. I had that great feeling of giving a punch back and being on the up and up.  
Talking and ordering other pilots around or vice versa had a lot of character, each pilot had a voice. If they died you did not hear it anymore. These days most games have random voices. Making the decision to send the rest of a squadron home so that you meet a mission objective, but it makes the mission harder for you was usually met with a voice response.... one that made your heart wrench. The voices were so similar to the movies.  In a lot of cases you did not simply have to destroy the enemy, but identify, scout or capture. Their were always more things arriving on the field and usually several stages to the mission.... a corvette you might be told is coming in at +5.00 mission time to do X. The mission briefings were superb and very animated. The voice briefing combined with the graphical representation gave each mission sooo much character. The in mission music was synchonised with events and gave a sense of elation, dread or any other number of emotions. 
The game even had pilot assignment!!! .... I mean sheez. Where is all of this today?      
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qICmNZeYuM&feature=related  

Tie fighter mission background. The music is AMAZING. This shows a lot of the features that made the game ooooze with character. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsDv3j_9sko  
  
Hyperspacing into a mission area was such a thrill, assessing the situation and determining what orders to give wingmen. Sending Y-Wings into assault a ship and choosing which target to sick your X-Wings against which was the most threat. Get it wrong and the mission went pear shaped. Split seconds counted and could be calculated.... because of distance and speed figures displayed. 
 It had an excellent storyline, putting you right in the middle of a serving x-wing squadron, making you feel like you were part of the fight and making a difference. It felt really good when you made it to a cut scene after a mission you did five times to get past and perhaps being transferred to a different mount like an A-Wing. I mean each different ship really did have a character of its own. The differences seemed huge, unlike a lot of games today where its really just a skin job. It was a real challenge for me finishing it on keyboard.  Like some sort of regimented training a lot of the game is seared into my memory, again unlike most recent games.   
 Like you said though, rose coloured glasses. 

When I finally got my hands on tie fighter, I had a bit of trouble coming to grips with playing the "bad guys". But once over that hump again felt the pure magic of the quality that goes into the series. You felt a little cold, a little too black and white. You felt like you were inside a star destroyer and part of the crew. The little cut scenes between some missions of the emperors fiends and agents giving you special side missions and the deviousness of a lot of missions gave tie fighter a different feel to x-wing, while also showing that it is almost possible to perceive the Empire as the good guys.   

Subsytem targetting was a great feature aswell.... the ability to disable craft went down especially well in some missions. Killing their engines, flying off to take care of threats and coming back before they repaired them to capture.                 

It was all so sureal..... but those feelings and that realism was all torn down by laughing droids and coughing generals ;) 
I had always intended to get into xwing alliance, but I simply cannot get into star wars any more.... it does not excite me since the new movies turned the universe upside down.    

A briefing about 1min in: You can see how not many games have this much character anymore. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r87Wz0GjdbI&feature=related    


The intro 

http://www.youtube.com/...p0lI&feature=related 


Tie fighter intro 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puvD_FDS_jE&feature=related 
A cut scene... so much character.... very midi  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjS1RMNrEtU 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO5sEUxuk-I