how did u start playin kof?

[The Monster]

I'll just say this. I knew as a kid what Fatal Fury was. Don't ask me how. My first dab of SNK fighters(because I always loved Metal Slug as a kid and thats a sidescroller obv) , was Capcom vs SNK 2. Which to me was just godlike. I always picked the KOF guys even over the SF characters I knew and loved (cept for Blanka , cause I love him). But that was it. I was really big into MvC2 , which I played in the arcades and ps2 a lot , and SF Alpha 3.

Years passed , Capcom gradually made me more and more pissed me off. Basically taking all my fond memories of my childhood with their fighters and such and just stomping them to the curb. When I preordered the MvC3 collector's edition , went to a midnight release with only like 20 people there and played a game that felt like a beta after a 3 months of having it , to find out months later they would re-release another version? I Said fuck that. I bought SF4 when that came out too , and I hated it. Didn't even bother with the other ones , though I've played Super at someone's house. Meh.

So basically to put this in perspective. I'm finally giving SNK the attention it deserves , and finally looking into new fighters. KOF was something I always secretly wanted to try but people deemed it as this grueling hard skilled game , which I'm sure in many cases it can be. But frankly I feel stupid all these years never at least trying it. I just recently bought 2 of the older titles and I'm really enjoying it. It's not so much hard to play , but a lot of the lingo is tough for me to get and a lot of the directional stuff is a little crazy for me. But it still feels like I'm playing an SF game , so it's cool. I'm still learning. I love the characters ,the stories and history. And 13 looks to be amazing , cannot wait to jump in and show people what a former big Crapcom fan can bring to the table , as well as put heavy players out more in the mainstream . I just hope the game is fantastic. Nuff said.

[hadoolket]

let's see if i can remember the details of my mysterious past as i pose in a brooding fashion with my arms folded and my eyes glaring into the night sky

ok i can't remember anything that way due to anime amnesia syndrome

i read reviews of kof94 (and later 95) as well as fatal fury games, but never had access to them then, but around late 94-ish early 95-ish i was able to score a copy of fatal fury special for the snes, and the DMs got me really hooked even though they were comeback mechanics

but i didn't really get to try playing a kof game until someone lent my brother his playstation 1 around late 1996 with a demo disc that had kof95 on it, and curiously i tried it out and was instantly hooked by the music and the presentation of just the intro alone--the part where iori puts out his own flames and gives you that smirking stare is unforgettable to any iori fan

eventually we got our own "next gen" systems in 96, me personally a sega saturn and my brother the playstation, and everytime we went to the store i was trying to ask around for king of fighters 95 for sega saturn only to discover the saturn version never came stateside, so i had to settle for playing 95 on my brother's playstation

i remember liking using kensou a lot, and liking the character voices and quips, and discovering the "my love" ending special, and thinking things like "wow, why doesn't street fighter do this stuff"

got involved in communities like the one that later became i.am/kof, saw kof97 news and combo videos and downloaded tracks of music from shambun's website, and when kof97 finally came out for sega saturn, i imported it as soon as i could--marking it my first ever import game, and i did buy a PAR with it

i can remember that when i first saw the designs to CYS, i remember not being really impressed a whole lot, thinking "those slots could have been used for characters like duck king!"--i was just looking at shinkiro's artwork then, but when shermie started talking and acting all cute I FELL IN LOVE <3

then i imported kof best collection, which i was upset about not including kof94, since i wanted to try it out

one two, skip a few, i think my interest in kof started to wane in 99 and i didn't really think much of k`, though sadly, unlike CYS, he never grew on me, and hasn't grown on me to this day it also didn't help that i was upset that CYS was dead, and i thought the orochi saga storyline was better if a bit convoluted in why it required a tournament to engage in orochi plans (as if that application is any better in the NESTS saga), and the storyline and characters just kept getting weirder and made me wonder "where the hell is duck king?!" and last, but not least, the quality of the soundtracks were decaying

i liked only a small handful from 99, maybe two tracks off the 2000 soundtrack (iori's theme was so sloppy), and 2001's soundtrack was just unforgiveably lousy that i just gave up on even bothering to check out future KOF OSTs

how can you go from a music department that produces awesome tracks like arashi no saxophone II, to something that ...makes gersploosh quality tracks in kof2k1?

[2nd Face]

My first SNK-experience was Fatal Fury 2 in a greek arcade. I spent a lot of coins in that machine.
There were other machines Year after year. I think the last one I played during that time was KoF95.
Then there was a big void.. then there was 13.
I had a visitor from Swiss who showed me KoFXII and I honestly did'nt like it.

Then I picked up RBFF and KoF98UM about a Year ago and got hooked again.
And now I can't wait for KoF13 to be released.

[kadosho]

2005.. its been a long time. Continuing the tradition of this thread, I too will share my origins with this series.

At a local arcade in San Jose CA, they carried a few titles. Some were just released and waiting to be played. So after school one Friday,I decided to play Fatal Fury it was right next to the SF cabinet. Placed my quarter in the slot, and began my crossroads into arcade love. Tried SF but it felt too stiff, FF felt so much more fluid.
Fast forward to SFII, a whole lot better but it played a bit like FF did. To my surprise FF2, and AOF showed up at another arcade. Went there, and found more solidarity.
Turns out there was a following beginning to start up all over the place.

KOF 94' - Amazed, loved, but the boss kicked my butt, played a few people and had a ball. 2001, not sure what happened but it was tough to find anyone to play.
2003, seems like people I used to know veered towards the VS or whatever series was going on at the time. XI I stumbled upon by some friends, tried it out but they knocked my butt since I wasn't aware of the changes. Once I got the hang of it, I got them back and snagged a few wins.

And here we are 2011, with XIII. Still going. ^_^

[xaos]

I guess my first post ought to be in here. Unless there's an introduce yourself thread I missed, which is possible I miss a lot of things. The first time I played KOF was the version of KOF 98 that came out for the Dreamcast called King Of Fighters '99 Dream Match back in 2000. I didn't know anything about the characters save for the Art of Fighting characters because that was the only SNK fighting game I played before. But I didn't start to get really into KOF until Capcom Vs SNK 2 when I started playing the SNK characters and thought man, these guys are all really cool, I should check the other KOF games. The rest as they say is history, been a KOF nut, er, fan since then.

[MDog]

I knew as a kid what Fatal Fury was. Don't ask me how.

I'm pretty much the same story. I at least knew about Terry Bogard, but I'd never played any SNK games other than Metal Slug. It was only a few years back - say, three or four - that I actually first played a KoF game; 98. After that, I was converted.

[DN3000]

Oh man this takes me back. I officially started in the arcades where they had street fighter 2 cab.... after a while and a lot of my money spent they decided to get another game(s) in... Fatal fury/art of fighting 1 &2. After spending an obscene amount of money on those games (fuck you raiden, mr big, lee, yuri, laurence and geese!! ).

Then came KOF 94... I was like Fatal fury and Art of fighting characters mixing it up... hell yeah!

I didnt play a lot of 94' but when 95' came around THAT was another story. The game for me at the time was awesome and i couldn't get enough of it, even though the damage scaling was broken as hell... yes i'm talking to you Siasyu and Rugal .

Then after it was kof after kof to my joy.. end of story... thank you SNK

[Edgey]

I got into Fatal Fury from watching the anime series religiously. I rented the first Fatal Fury and liked it and then I played Fatal Fury Special a lot on the SNES (no arcades from around where I was, seeing how I lived in a hick town).

Then I saw in EGM the article on KOF 94 and I really wanted to play it. I never did though...

It was until I got a PS1 that I got KOF 95 and from there, I couldn't get enough of it. My Dreamcast has a lot of the SNK ports and honestly, even though I can get the roms, I still will buy SNK stuff when I can. I already got some games for the Neo Geo station on the PS3.

[yamazaky96]

I used to play street fighter II till 1995 (I was 7 years old)
then a new arcade opened in my area
when I first saw the king of fighters 95 in a big NEO 50" screen
I was amazed by the graphics, speed and ability to choose a team
so i started playing (mashing) KOF95 and Ninja master'safter few months they brought the king of fighters 96 and I was still mashing on it
then one day the replaced KOF96 with KOF96 hack where u have infinity meter and both Goenitz and Chizuru were unlocked
so I started choosing the broken chizuru and trying to learn how to play good with other characters
when they returned original KOF96 again I was good enough to win against most of the players
I became famous over there because I was the youngest KOF player back then
I played all KOF's except KOF 12, Neo wave and Maximum impact's
hated KOF2001 (I used to play it only for Xiangfei) and KOF2003
my favorite of all time is KOF02UM

[Great_Dark_Hero]

I began playing KOF when I was first exposed to it during CVS. I was a fourth grader at the time - I always used to play CVS in the PX arcade room after soccer practice. The characters from SNK side looked far more interesting and aggressive. I also loved Mai's appearance in that game. She was gorgeous as hell! MORE SO than Chun Li! (a ten year old liking a character such as Mai is kind of... strange.) Kyo had some interesting moves. Moves that I have never seen before. Yamazaki used to creep me out the most! Overtime, as I got older, I began to love KOF more (and SF much less).
Now, I am practically one of the biggest SNK fans here. I love the series to death now!

My first KOF game is KOF 98. That's when things started changing for me - I was a Spain when I was playing KOF 98. Then once more, one of my friends in Wiesbaden brought several fighting games to my high school and played them throughout lunch! KOF 98 and 3S are the games he brought! If it were not for those two games, I would not be in the FGC now!

[sazbi]

I played Fatal Fury on SNES.
But it wasnt till I played Cap VS SNK2.
That I got a taste of other characters.
1st KOF game brought MI 2 aka KOF 06

[Seizya]

An old artist got me into "KoF" if I remember correctly. Played "1996" & "1997". The rest is history.