Timber from 1984 is a skill machine by Bally Midway in which the player becomes a lumberjack with an axe and a time limit hanging over their head. The task is to chop down a set number of trees that gradually rise from the ground, alternately swinging the axe left and right exactly when the tree is within striking range. What looks at first glance like a calm forest scene quickly tests the player's reflexes and their ability to judge the right moment.
Controlled with two levers – one for movement and one for the direction of the swing – it demands surprisingly good coordination, since a mistimed blow means a lost attempt and precious seconds. As the rounds progress, both the number of trees to be felled and the speed at which time runs out increase, turning the game from a peaceful forest exercise into a hectic race against the clock. The design is credited to Steve Meyer, the same designer behind the bartending classic Tapper, which shows in the similar graphical style and sound of both games – the two titles even share a similarly clear, colorful character look.
Timber never achieved the fame of its older sibling, yet among fans of skill machines it retains a reputation as a fairly tuned game that rewards patience and precision more than raw reflexes. Among catalogs of the early arcade skill-game era, it is a title worth trying precisely for its uncompromising simplicity and cleanly tuned difficulty. In two-player mode, it also works as a pleasantly tense contest over who can clear their forest faster.
Why play it: It offers a clean, uncompromising test of timing and coordination in the form of a race against the clock through lumberjack labor.
Game 145 of 258 for Arcade
