CHICAGO, Ill. — Anyone who’s been to Yestercades in downtown Westfield to play one of the two dozen pinball machines might be surprised to learn that the game with the heavy silver ball was once illegal in New Jersey—and elsewhere.

In 1942, the State Supreme Court ruled that pinball machines were illegal in the Garden State, calling them “nothing but ingeniously designed and purposefully constructed mechanical gambling devices to appeal to, induce, lure and encourage the gaming instinct in the public generally and in children particularly.” That ban was lifted decades ago, but it’s still unlawful to play pinball on Sundays down in Ocean City. New York City also banned pinball in the early 1940s, and that prohibition lasted until 1976. Today in South Carolina, no one younger than 18 is allowed to play pinball.

After enduring some lean years during the 1980s and 1990s when home video games were all the rage, pinball mounted a comeback in the new millennium. On theAsbury Park boardwalk, the Silverball Retro Arcade, which opened in 2010, boasts several dozen pinball games, including ones that date back to the 1930s. The Yestercades on East Broad Street opened in 2018 and there are locations in Somerville, Red Bank and, soon, Metuchen. The Game Vault in Morristown is located in an old bank building, with a few games even tucked into the bank’s old safe.

We’re pretty avid pinball players, and a few years back we learned that a national pinball expo was held every October outside of Chicago. A few weeks ago, we went to check it out.

Imagine fitting about 20 Yestercades into a vast convention floor comparable in size to the Westfield Armory. That’s what we found when we walked into the Schaumberg Convention Center about 30 miles west of Chicago: Some 400 pinball machines, most of them introduced in the last 15 or 20 years, including favorites like “Attack From Mars,” “Cirqus Voltaire,” “Funhouse,” “Theater of Magic” and “Star Wars,” and a bunch we’d never played before. A handful dated back to my teenage years when I spent many afternoons on the boardwalk and at the mall “hanging around them dusty arcades banging them pleasure machines” (as Bruce Springsteen sang 50 years ago).

There were also a few dozen arcade games like the classics “Ms. Pac-Man” and “Asteroids.” And there were vendors selling things that a pinball machine owner might need, like spare parts, repair kits and souvenirs including suitable-forhanging replicas of the backglass of well-known machines. There were countless seminars focused on topics like pinball art, building a stronger pinball community and restoring pinball machines.

A few manufacturers were on hand to show off their newest products, and the unveiling of one—an Elton John-themed pinball game—attracted a crowd that followed the machine being rolled out onto the floor—like a rock star being trailed by superfans. A sales rep for the Houstonbased manufacturer of a new and fun game called “Labyrinth” told us his company was at the expo to both sell machines and to get the word out about the firm. The price of admission allowed unlimited plays on all the machines so we spent many hours going from one machine to another. We didn’t get to play the new Elton John game due to the long lines, but we did manage to check out the new ones based on the “Pulp Fiction” and “Alien” movies and the rock bands Queen and Foo Fighters. There was a definite Midwest vibe at the expo, with most of the several thousand attendees being from the region, at least judging by their unmistakable accents. There were some kids but most of the crowd was in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s, and everyone was relaxed and friendly and patient with the longer lines at the newer games. This was the 39th year for the pinball expo, and we chatted with a man from Milwaukee who said he was one of only six people to have attended every one of them. “I raised a family here,” he said, and recalled how the first one was held at a small hotel near O’Hare Airport. “It’s just gotten bigger and bigger over the years, and it’s always a good time.” He was right; we had such a good time playing pinball for hours and hours that we’ll likely return for the 40th expo next year.