Over the next several years, I kept playing different versions of Street Fighter II (Hyper, Arcade). Eventually, I picked up my very own copy of Super Street Fighter II (The New Challengers) for the Sega Genesis. I appreciated being able to play with some newer characters, particularly Dee Jay and Cammy. Even though I enjoyed spending a lot of time with all of the various iterations of Street Fighter II, I eventually grew weary of game's limitations and moved on to other, more interesting fighting games, such as Virtua Fighter 1 & 2, and SoulCalibur.
Then in December of 2000, my interest in Street Fighter was rekindled. I was home from college for the holidays and browsing around the local Media Play store for potential Christmas gifts. My brother and I had spent most of that summer playing the hell out of his new Sega Dreamcast so I decided to hit the games section to see if I could find any possibilities there. I happened across a marked-down copy of Street Fighter Alpha 3. Neither of us had ever owned a PlayStation or Saturn so we weren't very familiar with the Alpha series. I decided to take a gamble anyway.
When he unwrapped the gift on Christmas morning, I explained to him that I had picked it out because of our prior shared enthusiasm for my Genesis copy of Super Street Fighter II. He looked at it approvingly and agreed to give it a shot. Later that day, we fired it up and inadvertently ignited what would become a life-long passion for all things Street Fighter.