Well I'm 20, I started just playing around with it back in the SF2 days. Have early memories of playing things like MK, SF2, I think I have a slight memory of maybe KOF 94, but I'm not entirely sure (my childhood memories are HELLA fuzzy, especially when it comes to FG's for some damn reason).
My earliest memory was getting SFA3 from my brother for the PS1 when it came out (either 98 or 99, still fuzzy) and playing that to death...horribly. Yeah, thought V-Ism was horrible, should give you a good idea on how much I knew about the game lol...nothing.
Didn't start really getting into them until the rerelease of MvC2 on the Marketplace. Would've gotten into them earlier if I could actually find a goddamn copy of the game on the PS2 (thing was rare...stupid shortprint).
Anyway, did youtube, watched JWong beast on everyone like only JWong could do in that game, and it began.