Oh, how I remember this game.
And if you don’t remember this game… it’s got for real six-axis controls and tunnels and robots and missiles and… oh, yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.
It’s only $10 for both Descent 1 and Descent 2 at GOG.com, which helpfully includes a nice DOSBOX install. But wait! There’s more! The DXX-Rebirth project has ports for it to run natively on modern Windows, Mac, and *nix systems! (Note – I directly downloaded DEB packages from here, which made it very easy).
If you’re running anything other than Windows, get that nice virtual machine out (or even WINE), install the game, and copy the needed files over. It’s actually pretty dang simple.
Able to play all the way through? Check out the Descent Mission Database, yo!