If I recall accurately, on my 4MBC and Capersville any balls in the stepped ball traps just stay there at game over, tilt, advance to next player and/or ball in play and game start. You could only release them during a game. But 'twas a loooong time ago.

Especially the Tar Pit, it has no switches in it to 'tell' the game where a ball is in the trap. Would have taken extra logic and/or switches to fire the trap release three times to release any ball that might be in there when a game ended, started, tilted etc. Not worth the cost for an EM. Besides, the balls staying there as carryover are a good attract for players.

Right, it would know one was in there but not where, so it would have to fire the release three times. Wonder if anybody ever modded theirs to clear it out just for the heck of it.