Rescue Raiders over Choplifter any day... but dang is Rescue Raiders hard. Escape from Castle Wolfenstein, F15 Strike Eagle, Silent Service and Stellar 7 were some of my favorites (along with Karateka, one of the few games I actually bought, and Mario Bros.). I was more of a Wizardry player than Ultima, but I loved them both.
I also grew up on this stuff, my first computer being a II with an AppleSoft language card (which would make it a II+). I LOVED some of these old games you seem so frustrated with -- especially Bilestoad and Aztec. Maybe I was more of a nerd; I'd write doc files for the cracked games, too.