I'm 27, and my history with MK is similar to yours. Also, your post pretty much covers how I feel about MK-- 1, 2, 3, and even 4 were the best...after that it was just, well different. This one is definitely looking good, I'm excited like I use to be playing a new MK game! (though nothing can ever beat the first time that I saw and played MKII in an Arcade, it was seriously one of the most memorable times in my life....sad I know.)

I'm 14 (gonna be 15 in several days).

I staring playing MK when I was like aound 4-7 I'd estimate. When I was younger, I remember seeing Cyborg Smoke, Raiden, Sindel, Tanya, Kabal, and Quan Chi and Jade the most. I have vague memories being able to beat the game easy and do finishers by mashing buttons because I couldn't understand what I was doing also. MK4 scared quite a bit. The darkness and Game Over screen were the biggest factors. I forgot about it for a while and remembered what it was when got into it when I played MKDA around 2-3 years ago. That's partially why MKDA is my favorite and I'm fond of the characters introduced that game.

Also, I distinctly remember the day I saw the MKA select screen and instantly recognized Sindel without ever seen her in MKD. That's probably because of my MK3 series memories.

This thread's probably gonna get moved.
Anyway, I'm 21, and I first started playing w/ my cousin when he got MK3 for Genesis. I wasnt allowed to play any more until I was 14 and I started playing w/ my best friend at his house. We played (and mastered) MKT for N64. Ahhh, those were gooooooooooooooooood days. We literally stayed up all night one night figuring out all of Shang Tsung's morphs.

I'm 22, and I started playing MKII and MK3 when I was 6 or 7. MK3 and UMK3 were the newest titles when I started playing, and those are still my favorite games...

Ah, the good old days.

Im 21
Started playing MKII when I was around 6 or 7 as well...

But I REALLY became a Hardcore MK fan when MK3 came out...

Is still my favorite game till this day.

I am 25, going on 26 right around the time the new game hits. (Birthdays in late April).

I honestly have no recollection of what age I was when the first game hit, but I do remember my first encounter of it, and my years with it since...

My local 7-11 had a small arcade attached to it. 3 or 4 games. Nothing fancy. But it was fairly active. Local youths hung out there. Played games. Really early on I played the Ninja Turtle arcade game there ALL THE TIME! lol... Anyway, for the longest time, hottest thing there became Street Fighter 2. There was also this Terminator 2 shooter... but Street Fighter 2 got all the attention. anyway... people loved Street Fighter 2. Then they added Bison/Balrog/Sagat/Vega and people loved it more. Then they added Cammy/Fei Long/DeeJay/Cammy and people loved it even more.

But they rotated new games in and out from time to time, and one day the Terminator II game was gone and behold... this new game "Mortal Kombat" was there.

And suddenly nobody at my 7-11 cared about Street Fighter II anymore, lol...

"Holy crap! They look REAL!" people said, because by those days standards... they DID look more real than any other game we'd seen, lol. Then this fatality thing surfaced. "HOLY CRAP! WE CAN KILL EACHOTHER!"

And that started my lifelong love of Mortal Kombat.

I didn't play it much at the 7-11 because I was honestly intimidated by it. I was a kid. Lots of big teen/adult types played it. I was always afraid of getting my ass beat. But I used to just WATCH people play it ALL THE TIME, and I loved it, lol.

As I got older I began playing the home versions. MKII replaced MK at 7-11. I still played the home versions. I still watched awesome people play at the arcade. Marveling at amazing feats like seeing a fatality here and there, or the first time I saw someone fight Jade.

Sooooo one day... finally... years later, MK3 replaces MK2 at 7-11. First I'm seeing of the game. Ever. We didn't have the internet back then, so I had no idea it was coming or if console versions even existed.

So that day, I'm a little older, and I have a few years of console MK1 and MK2 under my belt, so I say... "Screw it! I've gotta try this game. I'm going in!" and put my quarter down... lol...

I picked Sektor. Wanted to try one of the new guys. The robots looked cool. I like red better than yellow. Smoke wasn't unlocked yet.

The guy I was fighting realized I was young and sucked, and couldn't have given me a better first experience. He didn't hammer me into the ground like some people might have. He even taught me how to shoot a missle. He still won, ultimately, but he was nice, and completely took the edge off the years of indimidation I felt toward playing MK at a real arcade... with people... lol...

I kept playing it sporadically at 7-11, but still stuck mostly to the home, with my friends. Eventually UMK3 replaced MK3. I played that at the arcade more than any other version. I was still young and kina sucked, so Jade beat me alot, since I was a projectile spamming kid, and she'd constantly go immune to projectiles and pummel me. I grew to hate Jade, and my friends loved that I hated Jade. (I like her better now. I don't blame her for my losses anymore. I just sucked, lol.)

Eventually arcades started to die off... 7-11 never got MK4. I grew better on home consoles as I got older, and am now much less prone to beatings and much less fearful of real life opponants, lol... but yeah... as a youngster, I avoided arcade play alot, lol...

These days though, I enjoy online matches in Street Fighter IV alot. They bring me back to my childhood and allow me to redeem myself, lol...

And I'm hoping this game will do the same for MK.

PS.

Oh... one more thing I owe to those MK cabinets at 7-11. One time when I was 10, I found a folded up page torn from a magazine hidden on top of one (think it was MK3) with a full page shot of three mostly nekkid ladies in leathery-studded biker bikinis... posing all... mostly nekkid and sexy.

That doesn't sound very impressive when you're 25 and live in a world where the internet makes porn 3 seconds away, but when you're a 10 year old boy in the days before the internet, it's like finding a gift of long forgotten treasure from god. Seriously. It became a prized possesion. lol...

That started my lifelong love of boobies.

My mom eventually threw it out. She didn't find it, she just threw out the thing I had it hidden in before I was able to retrieve it. I was crushed.

Violence and Sex. Sets the tone for the rest of a 10 year old boy's whole life... lolz...

I am 28. Started playing MK shortly after MK1 launched into arcades when I was in 5th grade. Saw some guy do Subby's spine rip and i was hooked. I have lived and breathed MK ever since. My all time favorite video game and story line.

28. My local video (yes, video) rental store at the time had an MKII machine shortly after the game came out, and I'd watch the bigger kids play it. A few of them taught me what they knew, and within two months I was the undisputed champ of the area.

Shit, I remember keeping in contact with(read: repeatedly pestering) the local arcade guys so I could be on the premises the day they rolled out the MK3 arcade machine...

24 started playing Mk when I was prolly 6 my older brothers got me into the game havent left it since probably never will haha.

Im 25. (Going on 26 later in the year)

I first started play MK at the ripe young age of 8 back in 1993.
I played it on a Sega Genesis console courtesy of
My mom's friend staying with us at the time.

From there on, I was totally addicted (at least until after MK4)
I used to spend literally hours playing as every character to perfection
And learned every fatality.

21. Played MK2 a little when I was 5. Got into UMK3 when I was 9. I then took a break after a while. Rented MK4. Then in middle school I got MKDA. That is what really got me into the series. For a 3D game it can get pretty fast. At the time I really liked the 3D games better. However, I like the 2D games better now. I went back to playing them when I was 14, and I loved the challenge, the gameplay, the story, and the characters better. However, the AI could be really cheap. That was my only gripe.

I'm 23.

I started with the original in the arcades when I was like, 5? 6? I don't remember. Anyway, I think I played Raiden a lot back then, not sure, though I do recall putting in quite a bit of time as Sub-Zero. I probably logged the most time on UMK3 for the Genesis and MKT on the PS1. MK is and has always been my favorite fighter and I'm really looking forward to seeing what the new game brings to the table.

I'm 16 now.
When I was young, around 5, my brother and I got the snes. My parents bought the mk game, not knowing or even caring about the violence. Unlike my brother who loved playing it, I was scared of it. Especially when goro cane out in the intro. I would always hide behind my sofa when my brother would face him.
But after I got the N64, my brother stopped playing mortal kombat. Infact, I totally forgot about mk until I got into middle school.
Then I got an xbox. One of my friends gave me a kb toys gift card. So i decided to buy game. I looked at all the games, but only one stood out to me, mortal kombat deadly alliance. Memories of the first game started to come back. I decided to buy it see how much both the game and I grown.
Instead of being scared, I found it to be actually fun. Though I would play it every now and then, it was still fun.
Then a few years went by and out came mortal kombat deception. I traded deadly alliance for deception. It was about now that I started to get interested in mk. I would play deception almost everyday. But none if my friends play mk. Even my brother was bored of it. But I wasn't so I would play one player modes all the time.
When arrmagedon came out, I was excited. Every character from every game. I asked for it for Christmas and got it. I would play it every day, like deception. I lasted me for a couple of years until I realized how bad the mechanics were and the graphics, so I stopped playing mk.
When I heard that mk vs dc was in develpoment , I was back to my addicted mk state. I would follow every mkast and read every interview about it. Unfourtunatly l, I don't have the 360 or ps2, so I couldn't get it. I was only able to play it a few times.
And now, in the present, I follow mk online everyday for the lastest update and all. I still don't have s 360 or ps3, but that won't stop me from watching videos and such.

Sniff, i am 29 going on 30. I remember playing the mk 1 arcade at Tilt. For those that don't know thats an arcade center in the mall. Also i remember playing it at a putt putt place (omg really!), and a bowling ally.

Lastly i played mk1 at the mall when shopping for a new console, it was demoed for the snes in the mall. Ah the good ole days, and yet i love the new days as well!!

I'm 26 years old. I've been with Mortal Kombat since day one with MK1, back in 1992. Governor Square mall in Clarksville TN, is where I first played Mortal Kombat 1,2, and 3 at a Namco arcade. I first played UMK3 at Fort Cambell. Believe it or not I was there when someone put a chip in UMK3. After that I noticed when the AI got "harder". I forget if it was the UMK3 update itself or just a revision. Lasty, MK4 at Southlake Mall, in GA. Btw it sucked when Namco changed the coins for quarters to different versions, thus making some older coins useless.

I'm 19 and I started playing MK when I was about 8 I think.

I'm 29. Started with MK1 back when noooobody knew what a "Mortal Kombat" was. My dad took me to our local arcade for my b-day (in 1992-1993 I would've been 10 or 11yrs old or something like that) I had the arcade cabinet all to myself for at least an hour.

Caught the demo going through it's motions on auto.
Saw Sonya's gameplay and her bio first.
Saw Scorpion and Sub-Zero gameplay, and Sub-Zero's bio next.
and then... then I saw Raiden throw some lightning. His bio played and well...

All Done.

lol

(this thread will go to the Overall Forum in 5... 4...)

I'm 19 started when I was about 5 still play it too this day alleays loved the violence and all characters first mk I played was mk1 my fav is mk2 add me on psn jbird315 on 360 jaybird888 :) just let me know you're from mko :)

One of me is 21, the other me is 13 or something like that. I started playing in arcades. I started playing MK 2 on sega I think. I still love the series, I think it's meh. We both think the new one will be awesome though

I'm 19 and the first video game I ever played was the Mortal Kombat 2 arcade game at the local bowling alley when I was three years old. Yes that's right three years old.

I'm 16 ive been playing mk since I was 4 I've played every mk game besides mythologies lol.

I'm only 15, so the series is older than I am.
I don't remember exactly how old I was when I first played the series, I just remember playing Mortal Kombat II at a friend's house before I was even in elementary and falling in love. <3
If I remember right, it was on his SNES.

17, I'm one year younger than Mortal Kombat....

and always will be

damnit...

Just turned 25, and I vaguely remember my first MK experience being at the arcade at Granada Studios in England on a school field trip, probabaly in '93.
A friend and I were just walking through, and as someone else mentioned, the preview screens attracted us immediately. I think I picked Cage or Kano, and inevitably sucked ass.

Then a camp-like thing I went to in the holidays had a Master System, and the older kids used to play and I'd watch. Remember falling in love with Reptile, as the mystery surrounding him as he jumped down before fights was just...cool.

Then I got the game itself for my Amiga from WH Smiths (English store, kinda like a news agents, pharmacists, electronics store rolled into one). I recall being 7 or 8 and walking up to the counter with my money, praying the woman wouldn't see the small, red "15" sticker on the front, meaning instant denial.
She didn't, and I had my first copy of MK, with the AWESOME, massive red Amiga box with the iconic dragon logo:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/mortal-kombat/cover-art/gameCoverId,43162/

Then MKII came out, and another friend and I played (and I think cheated) our way to defeating Shao Kahn on his Mega Drive. These were the days before the internet, so you had to rely on cheat code books and the like, the ones that came free with video game magazines - and often had the codes incorrectly printed! (Damn you Sega Tips book, oh how you frustrated the hell out of me on Sonic CD before I got a different book and found you were wrong and just tormenting me)
Soon after it was my birthday. I still recall the dream I had night or so before. I was doing judo at the time, and in my dream I morphed into Reptile and defeated my sensei! Lol, my obssession with the secretive green ninja knew no bounds (until I actually USED him in MK2)

And finally, I moved to Canada in '97, and picked up a copy of MK3 with a playstation. Played it for hours, as I actually liked the change to the modern, post-apocalyptic environment, the robo ninjas, etc. And who could forget the giant rectangular jewel case borrowed from all the unsold Sega Saturn games???

Ah, the memories...