@Derpy Whooves
(I don’t want to disparage your post, it’s just somewhat inaccurate.)
You’re talking about Descent 2’s level 24 boss. He has a glowing spot on his back that’s the only vulnerable spot. Descent 1’s level 27 boss has no such thing, he’s just otherwise really tough and hard to beat due to the
extremely limited space you have in the boss room (you can see that clearly on the video you linked), and because he can spawn other robots to attack you, and because he (like all final bosses) can single-hit kill you on almost all skill levels.
Despite of this, I think Descent 1’s level 7 boss is harder. Because you’re locked in the (significantly larger) room with him and because it’s so early in the game, you don’t have any powerful weapons yet. Plain homing missiles and level 4 quad lasers are the best you can have at that point and they barely scratch his paint. Level 27 does not lock you in the room and you have the most powerful weapons at your disposal, so you can take potshots through the door and essentially cheese the fight that way. Plus you can carry extra cloaking devices and invulnerability powerups with you into the boss room. No such luxuries are possible on level 7.
Descent 2 introduced bosses that are vulnerable to only one type of weapon (energy vs. matter). Level 20 and 24 bosses are only vulnerable to matter attacks (ie. missiles) so firing your lasers at them is pointless.
(Source: Descent 1 and 2 source code. I’ve read them. And I’ve played the games too many times.)