In Alpiner, the player is trying to climb to the top of a mountain while avoiding various obstacles, such as lions, bears, skunks, and falling rocks. Some obstacles make the player fall back a couple steps, while others make him fall to the base of the mountain. When the latter occurs, the player loses 1 life.
The player starts by climbing Mount Hood, and then climbs taller and taller mountains, eventually reaching Mount Everest. In all there are six mountains to climb. Whenever the player successfully climbs Mount Everest, they are given one life and the game goes back to Mount Hood, where the difficulty has increased.
The game is controlled either by the keyboard or a controller.
Source: User Summary