Once you have inserted your coins into the cabinet of Bally Midway's 1984 arcade game Timber and pressed either of the Start Buttons, one or both of the Loggers shall emerge from the Foreman's cabin, as the text "PLAYER ONE" and/or "PLAYER TWO" appears on the screen; a tree will then sprout up from the ground, and you will have to walk over to it, then chop it five times with your axe to fell it. Once you have done so, it will grow either red or blue berries (depending on which Logger felled it), and the number in the appropriately-coloured window frame of the Foreman's cabin shall increase by one - and a second tree shall then sprout up from the ground, in a different place in the field. Once you have chopped down five trees before the timer runs out, the Foreman shall shake the hand of the Logger who had felled the most trees, and speak the text of "Congratulations, Player One/Two! You Finished With Time To Spare! Bonus XX00" (XX being your remaining seconds count multiplied by 1000) to him; he will then slap the other Logger in the face or drill him into the ground, before the next round. Starting from Round 2, Bears shall walk into view from either side of the screen and throw beehives at the Loggers - and they can either by avoided by moving up or down, or chopped for 500 extra points. However, if they should hit either Logger, the bees will emerge from them, and eat away all his clothes (except for his boxer shorts), costing him a life; Birds will also occasionally peer out of the trees, as the Loggers are chopping away at them, and once they have been felled, they will run out of them and start running randomly around the screen. If either Logger manages to collect them before they run off the screen they are worth 1000 points - however, once the timer has run down to 10 seconds, the Foreman will reach for the cord of the steam whistle, mounted on the left side of the cabin. Once the timer runs out, he will blow the whistle and cause an earthquake (which will cost both of the Loggers one life); they will also have to start the current round over again if they still have lives left.
Every third round is a bonus round, which has the Loggers standing on a giant rotating log in a river; the text "STAY ON LOG FOR EXTRA POINTS. GET READY TO ROLL." shall appear at the bottom of the screen, and the timer at the top of the screen shall then start counting down as the log starts to rotate. You shall have to push the joystick in the opposing direction, to make your Logger stay on the log (and the increasing score display creates the illusion of allowing scores not ending in "0"), and when it reverses its rotation you will have to push the joystick in the opposite direction to continue making your Logger stay on the log - and once the timer has run out the text of "YOU MADE IT PLAYER ONE/TWO. BONUS XX00", XX being the number of seconds multiplied by 1000, will appear at the bottom of the screen. However, if either Logger falls off the log, then lands in the water, the text "PLAYER ONE/TWO, YOU LASTED XX SECONDS", XX being the number of seconds you stayed upon the log for, will appear at the bottom of the screen instead; the table below shows the round numbers, tree counts and time amounts for the first 25 rounds.
| Round | Trees | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 0:45 |
| 2 | 7 | 0:50 |
| 3 | Bonus round | 0:20 |
| 4 | 11 | 1:05 |
| 5 | 15 | 1:25 |
| 6 | Bonus round | 0:20 |
| 7 | 19 | 1:30 |
| 8 | 19 | 1:25 |
| 9 | Bonus round | 0:25 |
| 10 | 19 | 1:20 |
| 11 | 19 | 1:15 |
| 12 | Bonus round | 0:30 |
| 13 | 19 | 1:12 |
| 14 | 19 | 1:08 |
| 15 | Bonus round | 0:40 |
| 16 | 19 | 1:05 |
| 17 | 19 | 1:17 |
| 18 | Bonus round | 0:45 |
| 19 | 19 | 1:17 |
| 20 | 19 | 1:12 |
| 21 | Bonus round | 0:45 |
| 22 | 19 | 1:12 |
| 23 | 19 | 1:08 |
| 24 | Bonus round | 0:45 |
| 25 | 19 | 1:03 |
After Round 25, the tree count will stay at 19 (like it has since Round 7), and the time amount will stay at 1:03 for the rest of the game; the bonus rounds' time amount will also stay at 0:45 (like it has since Round 18), for the rest of the game. Once either Logger has run out of lives (either through getting hit by a beehive or the Foreman's whistle-blowing causing an earthquake), the text of "GAME OVER PLAYER ONE/TWO" shall display at the bottom of the screen - and, if your score was one of the ten highest on the cabinet to date, you will have the opportunity to enter your initials for the game's high score table before it goes back into attract mode. Beavers were also originally programmed into the game for extra competition (but were eventually removed).