Smart Industries Debuts Coin-Op Games And Enhancements At IAAPA Expo

ORLANDO, FL -- Smart Industries rolled out four games at this week's International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions exposition here. Also on display was a number of styling and lighting enhancements to the company's line of skill cranes.

Making its debut at the 2015 IAAPA Attractions Expo was Spin Zone, a merchandiser that confronts players with a rotating perforated playfield and challenges them to drop a plunger through the moving hole, in order to win. On display was the 45" model; a companion 31" version is slated for introduction at the start of the new year.

IAAPA expogoers also had the chance to preview an innovative air hockey game. Hockey Ball is designed to be smaller than the typical table in order to appeal to players of all ages.

A new interactive "whack-a-button" game called Rescue Firefighter was previewed, too. The player strikes LED buttons on the playfield to control an animated firefighter, who climbs a building depicted on the backboard in response to those commands and so saves the day.

Hockey Ball and Rescue Firefighter are scheduled to ship early next year.

Smart took advantage of Attractions Expo to introduce its first duck-themed crane. My Little Duck has a 24" x 24" footprint and a cabinet adorned by a marquee header carrying three large yellow rubber ducks, certain to attract attention from across the room.

Several popular Smart Industries games appeared at the IAAPA Attractions Expo with a new look. The Toy Chest crane now is available with additional frame color options and a completely new carnival-themed graphics package. Pirate's Chest also is updated, as is the company's acclaimed Giant Crane, which boasts new carnival styling, too. The Giant Crane incorporates a distinctive air-controlled claw. The new styles are due to ship after the holiday season.

Smart's Jim Dupree emphasizes that the company's cranes feature reliable dual coin mechanisms, and space to install a bill validator. He added that Smart's crane actuators are unique in featuring dual micro switches.

Also at the beginning of the year, all Smart Cranes will begin featuring LED game lighting instead of the fluorescent lamps that have been standard for many years. A new merchandise shelf display for cranes, introduced at the IAAPA show, also makes use of bright, diffuse, natural-color LED illumination to create an "elegant showroom" within which crane merchandise can be arranged on multiple levels to optimize the game's look, Dupree explained. The LED-lit merchandise shelf is now available for Smart's Toy Chest, Pirates Chest and Prize Time Deluxe 31" cranes.