New arcade brings year-round fun to Smitty's in Tilton

TILTON — Looking for indoor activities during colder weather? You can now spend the day playing games and spend the night watching a movie, all in one building. Attached to Smitty’s Cinema, a new GameLAB with an arcade, ax throwing, and bar and restaurant opened its doors to the public last week. 

There are plenty of options. Visitors can choose between 70 arcade games and six ax-throwing lanes. The reception so far has been positive, and Smitty’s GameLAB manager Trevor Miller was excited about the opening.

“It's definitely had a lot of interest,” he said. “Last week was a bit of a slow opener because it's right before the holidays, but everybody came in with their gift cards this week and everybody's having a blast.”

Jen Maine, of Campton, brought her husband and two kids to the GameLAB for a one-hour ax-throwing session after gifting it to her family as a Christmas present. While the family was having trouble at first sticking the ax in the wood, it wasn’t long before everyone was doing well, and Maine’s husband Christian hit the bullseyes quite often. The family was happy to be out together.

“I like to do experience gifts, so that we can all go out and do something together,” Maine said. “I saw this posted on Facebook that they opened this up, and I thought it would be a lot of fun.”

The Maine family learned to play from Rich Thayer, a staffer at the GameLAB. Thayer, a retired U.S. Marine who served from 1996 to 2017, applied to the job because he enjoyed ax throwing recreationally. Christian praised his teaching tactics.

“Rich was above and beyond as far as the way he explained things, and made us feel welcome,” he said. “And then the software they have here for identifying the targets and the different games that you can play on, it is phenomenal. I haven't seen this anywhere.”

The GameLAB offers daily specials to entice gamers. On Mondays there are food and drink specials. On Sundays, there are game card specials.

The GameLAB has events exclusively for adults, as well. A New Year’s Eve masquerade party will take place Sunday, Dec. 31, from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. the following morning, and will include prizes for best dressed. There were also be exclusive entertainment.

Smitty’s GameLAB is one of few arcades in the Lakes Region. Miller thinks Tilton is the perfect spot for it.

“Having it in Tilton, there's not really any other place around like this,” he said. “Besides [Funspot], you have to go to Manchester to do Dave & Buster's or anything like that. So it's a nice little piece to the community.”

To learn more, visit smittyscinema.com/gamelab.