You fly _towards_ that in the same way they do in the film (and away from it when you die), but it cuts to you in a trench so there's plausible deniability here.

It's possible I have a false memory based on my _belief_ that it's the equator trench and that there's a cut scene or transition in both the DOS version of tar Wars: X-Wing and Star Wars: Attack on the Death Star (1991) which are the ones I played most. Anyone remember for sure?

YouTube has things called "let's plays"/"longplays".

For DOS Star Wings: X-Wing, I scrubbed multiple videos and didn't see anything about the trenchrun:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL480EC9A01E8C50F7

There is no Attack on the Death Star PC videos that I could find. I did find Rebel Assault:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FX3B8yC38U

Which almost explicitly avoids the entire conversation by starting at the trench entry.

I found an x68000 version of "Attack on the Death Star" (maybe the same, maybe different) and it does the same as the previous, only showing the surface turret battle and then directly into the trench:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUzqbVRUxAE

It would appear that most games of the era were either unsure, or aware that it wasn't the hangar bay trench.