I stumbled across micromusic.net somewhere in 2001. I think I was looking for anything related to net art. Looking for things like hell.com and jodi.org. I was hooked, but thought, "Oh damn, the whole micromuisc scene is in europe, too bad I'll never make it to a show". Shortly thereafter I came across 8bitpeoples and a few years later went to the 2006 International Chiptune Resistance show in SF with bitshifter and nullsleep.
I think one of my initial attractions to chipmusic was that it's this umbrella term for a wide range of styles. This was in contrast to the San Fransisco bay area electronic music scene which had an overwhelming amount of sub generas and rabid fans who were on edge just waiting to correct you about their sub sub sub classifications of music. In this way the chipscene seemed familiar to the breakcore scene I was a part of.
I completely missed/avoided the 8BC scene because it seemed like a lot of drama. But I've been convinced by Matt Payne that Chipmusic.org is a lot friendlier and less crowded. So far I like it here.