The day i got my original NES, I spent all day playing Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt.

The day I beat battletoads without a game genie or a single warp... Yes, beaten!!!

Seriously, when i finished Battletoads i was so mad at the ending, it was an ending for a medium game, but not for a game that made me lose my thumbs...

But i don't consider myself hardcore, i'm a gamer since the Arcade/2600 days, but it was only for amusement, what really got me hooked up was the NES/FAMICOM (I had a NES first, then a FAMICOM with NES adapter thanks to the Asian community) and the Arcade games after the crash...

I miss my Duck Hunt =/

 I started being one the day I got my Intellivision, and stopped being one the day I retired my SNES.

You cannot become hardcore on a casual game.  Now, if you would have done the same trick on the illegal PC version of SM64, then you would be hardcore.

The day I was born.

When I first held a SNES controller and played SMW.

Well for me I became I hardcore gamer back in 1986 when I first got my Spectrum 128 +2 (yes, im a old timer), First game I played was Rambo and ever since I was hooked. Them came the amiga 500 from then on I was in limbo land with a PS1, N64 but in 1998 I got my first ever PC.

Playing Super Mario Brothers, Duck Hunt and R.O.B back in 1987. A very long time ago in a galaxy far far away. I have and always will be a gamer.

The day I beat Ganon with the wooden sword cause my sister told me that was the only way to beat him....so I replayed all of zelda without upgrading the sword... (I was 5 yold)

it actually was very easy to beat him with the wooden sword...but retrospectively I put that on the training of killing blue guards in lvl5 (or whichever was the mountain one....)... was my first game =)