Ancient Web: PinGeek Catalogued Pinball Cameos Down to the Second

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.

A pinball machine can sit unnoticed behind a sitcom character for three seconds. PinGeek notices it, identifies the manufacturer, and writes down exactly when it appeared.

Visit PinGeek.

The homepage is a simple collection of links: customized pinball machines, arcade tours, pinball shows, and two extraordinary reference projects, Pinball on TV and Pinball in the Movies.

On the television page, the collector says there are 620 listings, with a stated update of August 13, 2025. The movie index, according to the homepage, contains 608 sightings with a February 2024 update. Those are the site's own counts; the value is in the accompanying notes, not an independently verified record total.

The accidental history of an arcade machine

Entries name the show, manufacturer and year of the pin, the particular episode, and the scene. In All in the Family, for example, a sequence of machines appears in Kelsey's bar: Merry-Go-Round, Miss-O, Firecracker, and several others. The archive connects a changing background prop to the long production history of a television program.

For American Pickers, the table becomes an almost microscopic episode guide. One note records a pinball cabinet visible nineteen seconds into a show; another identifies several damaged machines and estimates whether a half-covered cabinet could be one of two models. Links lead to the Internet Pinball Database where a machine has its own listing.

The site is equally willing to record uncertainty. A model name may be preceded by a question mark, and one entry explains that a scene was partly obscured. The collector even remembers wanting to see a 1976 Las Vegas arcade in a Starsky & Hutch episode, only to have the characters stop outside.

These are meticulous fan observations, not proof that every identification is right. But the work preserves popular culture's incidental use of coin-operated machines, which are often removed or replaced without becoming part of official production histories.

There is no elaborate database interface. The large tables, IMDb pointers and screenshots are a hand-maintained specialist catalog that rewards patient browsing.

Explore the television sightings and compare the movie list.

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.