I started liking fighting games, when I saw others play them and tried them on as a lone kid. Since I didn't have anyone to teach me or play with me, I adapted too fast and found anything on my own. I used almost all my allowance to play MK1 at my village. I still remember the fatalities I found on my own or saw others do them. Time fled until I tried other games (DarkStalkers, Samurai Shodown, Fatal Fury, Mace: The Dark Age, etc). Every time I was in holidays and there was an arcade place, I'd go straight there and find any FG, even new, to play them.
The last time I played FG before going on a very long slumber was Tekken 3 and Mortal Kombat 4. At that time I was in disbelief regarding the 3D, because I thought of them as pseudo-3D. They were in the experimental phase at that time. Mortal Kombat 4 was suffered with a lot of bugs, and was the last one that I played as Fujin besides Sub Zero. Tekken 3 was one of my fav that I used to play with my childhood friends and my lil bro before ours friends moved to Connecticut, US, due of their pops' job as a colonel.
Since then I stopped playing FGs, because the arcade places were closing one after another, so I couldn't go there to play them anymore. Didn't have much money to play them until a friend of my parents got us a "chipped" PSX as a gift and gave us some games, including Street Fighter Ex Plus Alpha. I was the only one in the family to play FGs, while my bro played other games. I sat down and played SF Ex+ Alpha to complete all the challenges with PSX's pad. I still remember the arthritis I had back then as Allen.
And that SF was the last one before I seriously stop playing FGs since I had noone to play with anymore. I wish I had someone around me to play or to train, like you guys. I'd be stronger today.
If not for you, and my buddies, who were my mentors, I'd not return back. Unfortunately, when I returned back since MKX I was a complete scrub, so I did go to pilgrimage (did go to many FGs, and I still do) to gather what I learned before I return back in MK11.