I'm pretty sure every version has some sort of glitch. I've been running L-1 for 5 yrs and have found it to be reliable and least glitchy. Others may disagree.

-jon

L-2 for me ,,, Getaway is my Keeper Pin .. I've Only got the 75K JackPot 1 Tyme .. Never the 100K for RedLine Mania

Here's Shanetastic Play-n HS2 ,, he does a Prutty gOod Job !!!!

P-7 is the only way to go. Has the best of all the versions with no bugs found in the production ROMs. Has the Run The Red Light animation. Also has the very cool 2 ball multi ball when achieving 4th gear - only found on P-7. Its a little rough around the edges and missing a few Dmd animations (ball save, different match sequence). It also awards a large amount of points for completing video mode but that doesn't bother me... Check it out!

I get most requests for L2, followed closely by L5, then P-7 and L-3 as a distant 3rd/4th.

A few people swear by P-7, I keep hoping to get another HS2 to try it!

No ball-save ( heck w/ that ) and if i complete the video mod on mine i get 52 mil- ( set for 30 sec- )
I collected 34 mil- in the vid- below B-4 I crashed ...

It has a ball save feature but its a short amount of time that gets shorter as the game progresses. Stops players from raping the game for free loops (another bug on production ROMs.). Just the animation is plain Jane - it just says FREERIDE on the Dmd.

I have this chart of differences from here a while ago:

ROM REVISION ........................................... L1 L2 L5

Supercharger driver can fail when
more than 1 ball in supercharger.....................Y N N

2 state flippers ...........................................N N Y

Run The RED LIGHT display mode ...................Y Y N

Secret mania bug with forgotten ball-locks ......Y Y N

Endless multiball (FREE RIDE BUG) ....................? Y N

Red light mania to normal multiball shift bug ....N N Y

Multiple balls released from lock multi player) ........? N Y

Extra ball in video mode ....................N Y Y

Display Flicker in Supercharge Mode ...................Y N N

Supercharger raise and enable 1-2-3 ..................N Y Y

Supercharger enabled with 3 loops ...................Y N N

Standard generous free ride time ..................N Y Y

--

Biggest problem in L-2 (that I've actually noticed) is the endless multiball bug, which is game-ending. I've had it happen to me once so far in a couple hundred plays.

this isn't correct. i have L-1 and extra ball comes up in video mode.

...also regarding the 'endless multiball' in L-1, it only occurs if you 'disable' the jackpot ramp in the settings. At least as far as I've seen in well over 50,000 plays.

Funny this came up as I just got done bringing a friends HS2 back to life. Mine has L2; his has L5. I immediately noticed that the locked balls all come out at once where my L2 they come out one at a time. So when playing his L5 Friday night, we noticed if one of us had locked balls we could steal them.

Also, I did notice that Secret Mania was in his L5. I thought it wasn't? We got it a few times.

I'd prefer L2 but I think because that's what I have and like. They're both very similar other than some minor things. I did notice it's easier on L5 for some things to achieve but that may be the settings different. I have his L5 set pretty much standard where ours is tweaked.

I've had a Getaway running L-2 for over 10 years and never saw an endless multi ball. Not saying it doesn't happen but it must be pretty rare, or perhaps a combination with a flaky switch rather than a simple ROM issue.

I have seen problems with the stoplight sequence getting messed up after secret mania or occasionally after redline mania.

I have L-5, locked balls never came out all at once. There is no stealing of locked balls on mine. I did notice sometimes after Red line mania, one ball sent into the ball lock will trigger a multiball.

I think once i did get burned out of Red line mania after finishing a mulitball. Redline mania was lite but the supercharger wasnt ready and when i shifted it skipped right back to first gear. This only happened once. I did have a reset once during an epic game and sh!t was rolling like crazy game play wise, then out of nowhere..bam..reset, it sucked. That only happened once though and i've got thousands of games on it.

I've had two endless multiballs happen on L2 with at least several hundred games. I'll have to try out P7, sounds fun.

Mine gets played a lot and have only seen it a few times in 2 years.

Interesting. I wonder if anyone else with L-5 can comment one way or the other...

I'm on L-2 and it happens to me probably once out of every 10-20 multiballs. I started a thread a couple months ago about it...

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/hs2-never-ending-multi-ball

I usually do 2-3 multiballs per game, so if L-2 had this bug 5-10% of the time, I would expect to see it within almost every session I play the machine.

The other referenced thread mentioned a connection between never ending multiball and secret mania. This might explain why I have not seen it. I hate the way secret mania messes up the lock light progression and if I am anywhere near multiball, I always decline secret in favor of multiball. I usually only play secret if I am am at green on the stoplight.

L5 does not let all balls go at once. How bought that Easter egg when 3 cop cars show up at donut heaven?

Yes, I think it is related some how to secret mania.

Interesting about that. Maybe there's multiple L5's out there? This machine definately lets them all out at once and oddly enough the list above sort of shows this about the multiplayer. The release pin stays down for the balls to clear so they all drop at once vs. my L2 where the pin drops and quickly returns to add a pause to each ball.

But this L5 does also do the secret Mania just like my L2.

Thats weird, L-5 and mine has the secret mania. Like a previous poster, i wont go for it under certain conditions. If i have everything lite except the red stop lights, and two balls are in the lock then i'll go for it. Since it will reset the lights after the mode, all i need to do is trigger all the green stop lights and lock that last ball and it will go into multiball.

Mine did this with L-2 when I first got it. The issue was mechanical: a mushroomed lock post. It couldn't move up and down fast enough to separate the balls, but it would work well enough to release them all at once. I ground the lip off the post and changed the coil sleeve, and from then on it would go up and down in between balls on multiball start.

Thanks. I replaced all the sleeves, but will look at that post, etc. Appreciate this!

I was running L2 for about 8 years (I just sold the game). I tried L5 for a little while, but I didn't like the missing Red Light animation, so I switched back to L2. The only time I experienced the endless multiball was after Secret Mania. I stopped playing Secret Mania a long time ago, so I haven't had the endless multiball in over 7 years. Sometimes my lock post would stay down for all three balls, but most of the time it would release them one at a time. It could have been mechanical, but it only did it every once in a while.

would you believe for the first time in almost two years my lock released all three balls at once the other night (L-5).....what the hell.....i should have never read this thread.

the coil sleeve was kind of beat so i replaced it, cleaned and looked everything over. i didnt get a chance to run it after and see how it is, probabaly fine and just a coincidence. funny though..

I'm on L2, and within a single-player game, I've seen it occasionally drop all the balls at once, and occasionally stagger them... Is it possible there are certain criteria within L2 that make it change between dropping all balls at once, and staggering them?

I've had L2 since I've owned the machine, never had them drop the balls all at once, always staggered.

Like Voltherd said it is mechanical. Check the metal post and spring. My post was dragging against the metal bracket. Changed the coil sleeve and put a dab of Teflon lube on the metal to metal contact and never had a problem since.

My ball lock vertical post does not have a NYLOC bushing on the bracket to help "guide" the post. Does anyone have a nyloc on your bracket? Also, does your supercharger diverter have a nyloc bushing? My super charger sometimes closes and hits the ball as it is coming around sending the ball back down the ramp. I have rebuilt the diverter but it still happens about 10-20 percent of the time. Anyone had this problem?

Little cleaning and adjustment and you were right, it was wrong the way it was dropping all at once. Very critical and a fine line between all at once or one at a time. Took a few minutes but that little bit made all the difference. Thanks for that.

Either Getaway I have at my place now does not have that nyloc bushing at the vertical post. Not sure about the s/c diverter gate.

Can anyone describe the exact circumstances where the "Run the red light" shows on the L-2 ROM.

Is it only showing up with the ball in the shooter lane? Or also during the ball in play.

This.