SFII: First experience. The biggest, most beautiful graphics I had seen up this point. It was my first experience with a fighting game (like so many others); one on one battles against characters who are for the most part completely unique (Ken/Ryu). Button combos to unleash super moves. I play it first in the local bowling alley and it's the biggest thing to happen to a group of closet geek gamers since Super Mario Brothers. An Asian friend of mine walks down the school hallway doing Dhalsim's animated stance (the hands waving) and a chubby kid kicks geeks in the stomach while saying "IGER KNEE" and blowing on faces while saying "JOGA FLAME! JOGA FIIIIIIIRE!".
SFII (SNES): Second issue of EGM I ever buy. Huge section on the history of SFII, the upcoming CE, and one full page dedicated to every selectable character (with two pages for the four bosses). We memorize it. The game comes out and we treat the cartridge as if it's a totem. We rent it, but never want to give it back, focusing on beating the game with every character. A friend finally buys a SNES and gets SF2. THOUSANDS of Vs. battles.
SFA2: After years of only buying a few of the games because we're cheap teenagers (although I played the hell out of my Genesis copy of Champion Edition) and because with each game in the series, it feels like the technology for current systems is running out (I have a Genesis and am not happy with the SSFII port), we calm down and try to form a MK addiction. Later, I get a Saturn cheap and the first game I grab is Alpha 2. It's back on. We're all in college now and everyone lives far away, so I sit in front of my screen playing Arcade mode until 4 in the morning every day. Sakura...
SFA3 (PS1): First game I pre-order and pick up on Day 1. Worth it. Miss work. Play game a lot. Drunk a LOT. Blackout one night on my couch after drinking half a bottle of SoCo and a dozen shots of JD; I wake up with the controller in my hand and am told I played something like a dozen matches with Shin Akuma while in a catatonic stage and beat every one of my not-as-drunk friends. The best fighting game I have ever played. I'm the only person on the planet, I think, who loves Fei Long and I kick the shit out of everyone. My friends force themselves to play defensive because I smack them in the face with a Dragon kick if they force me too far back on the screen and into a corner. A few years and two broken copies later, I'm nearly arrested at my apartment because, once again, I've moved away from my friends and the only person who's an equal to my abilities is the 6'6" drug dealer next door and I don't care if I'm an accomplice, I'm clean and I just WANT TO FUCKING PLAY STREET FIGHTER.
This is what Street Fighter is to me. There's more, but I'm boring enough as is. Fuck the kids who just don't get it.
Greatest. Fighting game. Ever.