If you're reading this and you're not already in line for a Sony PlayStation 3, you're probably out of luck for the limited supplies that went on sale for $500 to $600, beginning just after midnight today.

On Sunday, retailers have to do it all over again for the Nintendo Wii, whose selling points are ease of play and a $250 price tag. Popular Science just included the Wii among its top 10 innovations for 2006.

"It's doubly crazy because you have two (systems launching), and you are going into Thanksgiving weekend, so you have a lot going on," says Best Buy's Jill Hamburger.

Adding to the cacophony is word from Japan that the first PS3 units, which went on sale there over the weekend, have problems playing some PlayStation and PS2 games. That compatibility has been marketed as one of the system's strengths.

A statement from Sony confirms PS3s have problems such as dropped audio, freezes or controller malfunction with about 200 of 8,000 older titles (among those reported with problems are popular "Gran Turismo" and "Final Fantasy" games).

Beginning today, PS3 buyers can download an update that addresses the problem on the PlayStation Network and on playstation.com.

"I can't guarantee it will make the system 100 percent backward-compatible with all 8,000 titles," spokesman Patrick Seybold says. "We are evaluating every title and will work to provide compatibility fixes through regular firmware updates."

Technology analyst Richard Doherty of The Envisioneering Group considers the glitches a snag that Sony might have "ironed out perhaps by Thanksgiving. It just requires some tweaking of code."

It has been six years since Sony last updated its PlayStation line of video-game consoles, which explains all of the anxious anticipation of today's launch of PlayStation 3. But if you don't land one, there are ways to prepare for a later purchase: