With the Christmas rush beginning unofficially today, many consumers will be purchasing gaming systems to put under the tree. Don't look for any new systems at my house Christmas morning.

The thought never even crossed my mind to stand in line to purchase the new Sony Playstation 3 last weekend.

In fact, I watched and listened with amusement to the stories about the frenzy to purchase the new video game system. I didn't know there had been a Playstation 2 debut so I was obviously out of the loop.

As story after story emerged about people (usually young males) waiting in line for days for a mere chance at purchasing the system, what most of us thought was confirmed: These gamers don't have a life.

Then there were the stories about fights breaking out in line, people being robbed as they waited, others getting trampled as the store's opened their doors the morning of the debut. All this mayhem just to buy a system to play games of people fighting, being robbed or getting trampled.

Evidently, the graphics on the new system are extraordinary, which is supposed to make consumers drop their old systems like a hot potato and rush to purchase the new system. Obviously, it worked.

On eBay, the $500 and $600 systems were selling for $2,000 the next day but were coming down in price the next day to a mere $1,300. People must have realized that they would rather wait a few months to play the new system than go broke. But some people were still willing to pay an arm and a leg in order to be the first kid on his or her block with the new system.

Not as much notice was given to the release of Nintendo's Wii (pronounced we) gaming system a few days later. There were no stories of the robberies, fights or outrageous prices because Nintendo actually made enough to meet demand. (Although there were still news stories about people waiting in line for the stores to open in the morning, but that was to give a little respect to Nintendo rather than a lack of supply.)

I have yet to play the Wii but evidently it is designed to get back to the basics.

It features games I've actually heard of such as tennis and basketball, although I'm sure blood and mayhem can still be found on many of the system's games.

Ultimately, I don't understand all the hype and hoopla surrounding the new systems, but that is because I'm still satisfied with the original gaming systems such as Nintendo and Atari.

Perhaps it's because I don't need bigger and better quantities of blood, more realistic and fiery car crashes or larger and more graphic battle scenes. I'm content with moving the little guy on the screen across the bridge, behind the waterfall and over the porcupine-looking creatures. I understand those games and on rare occasions can beat them.

And I'm not the only one who values the older gaming systems.

My uncle has his original Atari system along with several dozen games, many still in their original packaging. While he was more than willing to talk about his gaming system, there was no chance he was going to give it up.

The conversation involved talk about handing the games down to his grand kids and this from a person whose children aren't even dating seriously.

Obviously, he knows the gold mine he's sitting on, at least to people like me.

There is a chance I could grow bored with the video games and systems I have and would purchase something new and original, but only if I find the time to spend 10 hours a day sitting with a controller in my hand. And that's not likely since it's hard to find 10 minutes a day for a shower.

-- Ronda Graff will stick with her original Nintendo system and Mario Bros. game because she can beat her 8-year-old son -- at least for the time-being.