I got an NES when I was 6; and honestly wasn’t too impressed. When I got SFII for Genesis, it was all over. I played it nonstop for hours on end. I became a 10 year old addict. After that I found KOF, which really made me really get involved.
I play Ken in SF, and Iori in KOF; hence O. Ken.
What are your stories?
I always played sf ii, alpha series, and tekken series casually (read: button mashing)
i started seriously with ggxx (match vids, training mode, etc) and moved on to 3s since no one plays GG.
I started by stumbling across a SF2 cabinet in a restaurant up the street from my house. I thought I was badass because I figured out how to roll with Blanka, until I went to Fun Factory and found out what a well-timed DP did to that shit. So yeah, I stick to shotos now.
I wonder how many times I would have gotten my ass beat if I knew about the Mike Watson cross-up mk tick back in the day…
It all began at the 7-11 in Gorham Maine back in 1993. I was 7 years old, and they had a CE Cabinet. I also very distinctly remember at a video rental place in Standish, the guy behind the counter playing WW on SNES. He was fighting Dhalsim w/ Guile and at my age it was so cool.
“Tiger, Tiger, Tiger Uppercut!” was about all I needed to see and hear.
The characters were beautifully animated, fucking huge, and I found out that there were home versions! I was sold on it. I immediately got Hyper (Turbo) and started playing all the time.
I kind of left fighters (reluctantly) when I had N64 though. I honestly thought that SF on the N64 would be awesome, and I was a Nintendo boy, but when no SF games came out I felt that N64 was a big disappointment. I see it now as leaving me 5 years or so out of practice with the new games and impeding my progress as a player, though I played on SNES the old versions all that time.
Then I had a DC for a while in 1999. Immediately got back into it with Powerstone (where are the new Powerstone games, Capcom?!) and Soul Calibur which had the best graphics of any console game in 1999 imo. Then when I got PS2 in 2000 I got every Capcom fighter on launch as well as building a collection of all the Alpha games.
I also got very much into MVC2 by seeing the Team Seattle combo vid, and I bought another DC just for the method to practice the game.
That’s it.
I remember climbing up onto the SF1 machine and using my knee to press those big rubber buttons in order to get Fierce and Roundhouse out.
Next thing I remember was playing Super Mario Brothers and the Indiana Jones game for a long ass time, then onde day the SF2 machine came in and I was hooked ever since.
co-sign on the “holy shit he threw a fireball!!”
first when i went to an arcade and saw that sf 2 had a monster in it. (that was the thing for me back then) then when i figured how to do the electric ball for blanka. after that my dad got me sf turbo for snes and one of my moms high school friends challenged me in it as chun li. he kept losin to me, i figured it was on purpose nowadays, so i thought i was good if i was beatin an adult so i picked up the game and learned how to play chun li :lol: from there i went on to all the crossover games and now im back at 3s and cvs2
I remember seeing the SF2 cabinet for the first time, and being intimidated by amount of buttons. :lol:
I finally tried it, and the rest is history.
Mortal Kombat. The first fatality I saw was Sub-Zero’s spine rip. That was the beginning.
I remember playing SF I back in the day maybe at 1st or 2nd grade. didn’t care about fighting games until SF II.
SF II
4th grade. bowling alley and at a moms an pops pizza palor. I would walk almost 3 miles just to “watch” the game. I couldn’t play SF II because all the teenagers and adults would be all up on the game and I was too little to say that it was my turn, so I just kept on watching people play for a good while. I remember one time I went to the mall when it just opened so I would get a chance to play without all the older guys hogging up the game.
I also played Fatal Fury because nobody played that game. I would pick Andy and would spam his"rush elbow" move to beat the game. I also played Art of Fighting.
But I got to play SFII much more when the game was released on the SNES when I was in the 6th grade.
I thought Mortal Kombat was hella scary back then seeing doods rip hearts and blood. Then I got mortal kombat on the genesis then MK 2 on the SNES.
Fighting games was apart of my childhood…
(cues the song “back in the days”)
Back in the days when I was young/ I’m not a kid anymore/
But some days I sit and wish I was a kid again
When I was a young boy I went to the laundrymat with my parents and just did nothing most of the time. Then I noticed a cabinet for SF CE. I could stop looking at all the character designs and “powers” that each individual had. My eyes were glued to the screen. I thought of Guile as 
and Blanka as well. Looking back I thought Blanka and Zangief were bad guys based on their looks.
. It wasnt till High School a friend came up to and said that he had a game with Marvel characters( I love comics) with Street Fighter characters(MSHvSF). I said Hell yeah and borrowed it. Since then I’ve been playing all sorts of fighters.
Started playing SF2, but i was just playing casually
but when SSF2T and SF Alpha 1 came along, thats when it peaked my interest
it started for me at a 7-11 near my house, I remember seeing people playing it when I went there with friends to get something to drink. One of my friends knew how to play it, he used Bison, I watched him play and got into it. What got me hooked was the competition that was created between me and my friends. Even though I sucked it was still so much fun to try and beat them.
Played SF2 back on the genesis by myself for years until I discovered the joys of arcade play.
Stumbled my way across XvSF in the washhouse. The older people there would hog the machine all day so I had to wait until practically closing to play. Eventually, I got the courage to play them and I would just beat all of them until they left. The washouse was officially mine. LOL, that place is actually around the corner. Haven’t been there in years.
I’m pretty sure most everyone here started out with the legendary SF2.
I first saw it at a 7-11 down the stret from where I lived. Remember barely being able to reach the controls, and picking the “green monster.” Sometime later my older bro got it for his birthday, which remains one of the best birthday gifts EVER (even if it wasn’t for me). By then it was over for me and I’ve been an addict ever since.
And I can’t forget getting a ps1 for the first time, and having only KOF 95 to practice for hours on end.
**KARATE CHAMP! **
I played that game all the time with my brother and friends, balanced gameplay and top tier graphics with that bad ass tropical sunset stage. It introduced me to the genre and from there came other favorites: SF, KoF, AoF, MK, WH, Tekken, VF, GG and so on.
Oh and white gi man > red gi man!
yeah i played alot of Karate Champ and Kung Fu on Nes. but i really got into it when i got SFII for SNES one christmas. Loved SFII so much. Then years later got into Guilty Gear cuz it had what i always wanted in a game(a Instant Kill)
7-11 on like 93rd Street in Seattle, Washington(Northgate area).
One day they took Shinobi out and put in SF2. It was dope and everyone loved it but the shit really went crazy when CE finally came out and then they got the rainbow chip. I used to skip school to play that shit, and there would be kids there at 11am on a random weekday playin. It was nuts, wish life was still that way. I played Chun cuz I was only like 10 and couldnt do a dragon punch but I knew timing, ranges and loved her air throw in Rainbow.