How bad is the return if it only goes halfway up a ramp? some I have played are brutal and if you dont make it all the way up that ramp it comes screaming down and you are done.

Yeah that sometimes is a bummer. I used to own a Hurricane which has a carryover jackpot. There were some kids over at my house that played a TON of games but were no where near good enough to get the jackpot. Then their dad steps up at the end of the day, plays one game, and blows my high score way out of the water! It took me a month to get that high score back, and that was doing it without the carry over! He gloated about it so much, I told him I should put an asterisk next to that score.