I had seen Neo Geo's around before as a kid at random arcades and the like, but the first one I ever played was at a pizza parlor in the bay area that my grandparents used to take me to. Me and my siblings, always being enamored with anything even remotely video game related begged our grandfather for some quarters to play some of the arcade games they had off in the corner of the store, I spent my time playing the SNK vs. Capcom 2 cab they had, but the cabinet that really stood out to me was the Neo Geo MVS that was running Metal Slug 4, from that point on whenever we visited the parlor with my grandparents those quarters went into the Neo Geo and I became mildly obsessed with the Slug series
Recently my grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimers, my grandfather does his best to help her but the bottom line is that we don't visit them as often as we used to, and I can't remember the last time we went to the pizza parlor or if it's even still there anymore, let alone if they still have that cab. It was my grandmother who originally found the place, and it became in some ways something special, and one of the fondest memories of the place was getting to spend quarters on that Neo Geo cab. I bought my converted cab (stupidly I might add) and a copy of MS4 so that in some small way I could relive that magic
It's odd the kind of things you get sentimental about when things are hard emotionally, but for me it was MS4 and a beat up old cab at a pizza shop that got to me, and ultimately got me hooked on all things Neo Geo