Yeah, lane gates back to the shooter lane were cool; the old paperclip trick. Stern has done a few variants on this, but not a true ball save via the old lane diverted.

Gobble holes would be funny at first, but I'm not sure they would stay fun in home use. I think you could do a *sometimes a Gobble hole* hole. Gobble holes return to the ball trough, so you could program a game to interpret the shot as a jackpot, a mode shot, or a gobble hole (ball loss). That could make it fun. Maybe.

Gobble holes on route would upset the modern player. I don't think that would work out too well.