Months after Japanese gaming giant Nintendo Co. launched a gaming system that brought players to their feet, it is still rare to be able to casually walk into a store and pick up a Wii.

		Listen in Suzanne Hock, of Shaler, arrived at the McKnight Road Circuit City Sunday at 7 a.m. in hopes of buying a Wii system. "I've calling around to different stores for about six months ..."

Consumers may find that aggravating, may feel manipulated, may not believe the company's protestations that it is moving as quickly as possible to step up production. But that doesn't seem to stop them from working overtime trying to buy. And perhaps throwing a few elbows in the process.

Take, for example, the scenes that played out last Sunday morning. On a day that dawned bright, blue and beautiful -- perfect for a rest from the weekly grind -- Christie Sidora of Squirrel Hill got up early to wait at the Kmart in West View to try to buy one of the Wiis advertised in that chain's circular.

When the store opened at 8 a.m., she said a father and son cut in front of her, yelling, "Run! Run! Run!"

Things were calmer at the Kmart at McIntyre Square on McKnight Road, where a handful of customers gathered around the front doors just at opening time.

But they, and Ms. Sidora, learned the same thing -- Neither store had any. At McIntyre Square, the message came from an employee who leaned out the door and asked if anyone was waiting for the game system. "We didn't get any of them," he reported.

Michael Benninger of Shaler took it calmly, although he was disappointed. In his search over the past couple of weeks, most methods of tracking down the systems didn't turn up much unless he was willing to pay a lot more than the $250 list price on eBay. Sunday ad circulars offered the most hope. "It seems to be the only reliable way to find them in local stores," he said.

He wasn't quite ready to give up. The circulars had also indicated Circuit City would get Wiis.

That's where he and Ms. Sidora ended up in the same line, both of them several spots back from the line leader -- a woman who had been in her folding chair in front of the McKnight Road store since 7 a.m. "I was very determined this time. I'm getting one," said Suzanne Hock, another Shaler resident.

Typically, such lines are more common around the Christmas shopping season. That's when new products arrive and many gifts are bought. And that's when Nintendo launched the Wii last year within days of rival Sony's unveiling of its PlayStation 3 system.

Waiting 12 hours for those first sales didn't faze Ted, a Pittsburgh resident who declined to give his last name. But he was back in the Circuit City line this week to help a friend. While it's unusual to still have supply problems this far along, he believes Nintendo officials when they say it has taken awhile to ramp up manufacturing.

Others were not so sure. "I actually think they hold back on them to keep the hype up," said Robin Lynn, a Brighton Heights resident. She was standing in line with her step-daughter, who lives near Harrisburg and stumbled across a Wii in a local store awhile ago.

John McMichael, a Wexford father who went to Kmart thinking his three sons would like the video game system, noted skeptically that the limited supplies have stretched out an awfully long time. "Interesting marketing technique," he commented.

There may be something to that, said Dawn Iacobucci, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. She hadn't specifically studied the Wii situation but noted that there's a certain desirability in the exclusivity.

Whether Nintendo will face any backlash if supply issues drag on too long is hard to tell, she said. "It's a risk."

The typical consumers willing to camp out for a video game system would likely be young men who spend hours with a controller in their hands or parents trying to make the kids happy, said Dr. Iacobucci.

In the case of the Wii, friends and family seem to be helping drive continued demand by infecting each other. Mrs. Lynn's husband liked bowling on a Wii his daughter owned, so his wife's been trying off and on for months to get him one. Ms. Hock played other people's Wiis and decided it was the perfect party game system. Her last experience with waiting hours for a hard-to-find item came years ago when she wanted a Cabbage Patch Doll for her then-young children.

"Everybody you let play your system wants one," said Ted, wryly.

Nintendo is benefiting, of course. In April alone, it sold 360,000 Wiis, compared with Sony's 82,000 PlayStation 3 systems and 174,000 Microsoft Xbox 360s, according to NPD Group, a market research firm in Port Washington, N.Y.

Retailers from Toys R Us to GameStop have cited the Wii, among other video game developments, as helping boost recent earnings results. In a recent discussion of earnings, a Nintendo executive said the company has considered expanding its network of retailers but not until it can promise a steady supply to the existing ones.

The executive also said that little by little supplies are starting to improve. Some store managers, bloggers, even customers agreed there's been an easing lately of the shortages.

For consumers who want systems, the hunting technique used by those at Circuit City on Sunday seems to be the most popular at the moment. Questioning retail workers can be less effective as employees are tired of taking queries and often don't know when the next shipments will arrive.

"I only had to search for about 10 days or so, although I think I got kind of lucky," said Emily Garrett Kudrytski of Bloomfield. She had posted a request for advice on a Wii discussion site but found her best bet was following the sales and being at a Toys R Us store at the right time.

Web tracking sites weren't much use to her. One Texas company promising to sell Wiis below the list price appeared to be running a scam. She reported it to the Better Business Bureau.

Bill Young, who manages the Target in Monroeville, didn't have any in stock when a reporter called, but he, too, sees things getting calmer. A couple of weeks ago, his chain advertised the systems. The ones on hand that Sunday sold quickly but more came in on Tuesday, he said.

At Circuit City this weekend, operations manager Mark Steinitz came out at 9 a.m. and was happy to be able to give everyone in line a voucher for a Wii. He had 12 and that's how many they wanted.

A couple of weeks ago, he had 15 vouchers but fewer people in line. "I thought it might be waning," he said, smiling and dropping his voice at the implied heresy of the notion.

This may be the lull before demand picks up again in the fall driven by a wave of game introductions for the Wii. Steve and Maureen, a married couple from Massachusetts, did a one-minute how-to podcast recently on finding a Wii. They predict new games will driving up the hype again after the doldrums of summer. That's a time-honored technique for keeping consumer interest up.

For now, "I think you still need to get there when the shipments come in," said Steve. The couple shares a lot of personal information on their Wicked Good Podcast, so they don't give out their last name.

One thing this annoyingly slow distribution model has going for it: Many buyers have tried the systems and know what they're buying. Even that doesn't guarantee everyone is in love with the product. After all her effort hunting the thing down, Ms. Garrett Kudrytski was hoping playing it would provide a little more of a workout.