Real talk, 1998 was the biggest year for fighting games for me. KOF '98, Alpha 3, Real Bout Special Dominated Mind, Real Bout 2, Virtua Fighter 3 at home (imported) and others kept me glued to fighting games for the majority of the year. I also got Waku Waku 7 and Kizuna Encounter that year on the Neo-Geo and played the crap out of them the entire summer.
Alpha was my game. More specifically, Alpha 2 and Alpha 3 were where I "peaked" in Street Fighter. I was in high school and had plenty of time to play, plus plenty of people to play with. Never did enter any tournaments but I was able to beat virtually anyone that I played or go toe-to-toe with them in the area. In fact, when Alpha 3 first came out in arcades, I drove out to go play it for the first time, beat everyone there, then proceeded to destroy the CPU without losing rounds until I got to Balrog (hidden boss) and finally lost. And I did this...
...with Dan. I was pretty full of myself until I went to Japan for the first time and got my ass kicked up and down by some insane V-ism players in Alpha 3. I have no doubt that if I somehow had gone out to Cali to play Alpha 2 in those days, I also would have gotten quite the reality check.
Anyway, after playing Alpha 3 in the arcades, I kind of didn't care, shrugged the game off, and went back to the Neo-Geo. It was when Zero 3 hit home later that year that I got addicted to it and played the crap out of it for several years.