What game started it all? If I think back far enough there were 2. First Flimbo's quest on the C64. My older sister had a C64 which came with a cartridge that had 4 games on it. Fiendish Freddy's Circus, International Soccer, Klax & Flimbo's quest. Of all the games Flimbo's quest got most of the play time from me & my sister. Both of us only finished it once each. Flimbo's quest was a mash up of a side scrolling platformer, a shoot em up & an RPG. In the game you had to collect a series of scrolls on each level which when joined together gave you access to a portal to the next level. I think the overall story had something to do with saving a princess Around about level 7 (I think it had 9 or 10 total) it became unforgivably difficult so getting this far alone was a challenge. I'd love nothing more as a gamer to tackle this game one last time but alas my C64 is long since dead

The 2nd game was Street Fighter II. We had 2 take aways in the town I grew up in that both had a SFII machine each & whenever my parents brought me into either (which would of been a few times a month) I'd keep at them until they gave me some change so I could play. If I was lucky I got 40p (enough for 2 credits back in the day) and I rarely made it past the 3rd or 4th fight because I was like 5 was I was really $h*t at it I used to pick either Ryu, Ken or Blanka. I remember coming across a SFII machine in a gaming arcade while on a family holiday 7 years later and managing to get as far as Vega.

So Flimbo's Quest & Street Fighter II are pretty much were it all began for me