Highscorer 1986 is a solo game for 3 to 99 players, where one player is playing a simulated slot machine set collection game and the other players are betting on the results. The game includes a score card which resembles the high score screen of a vintage arcade game to record the slot machine player's score; this player wins if they set the high score. The betting players are competing against each other for the high score.
The game lasts 4 rounds. In the first 3 rounds, the betting players have a limited number of bets to place on how many of each of 8 symbols will be in the slot machine player's collection at the end of the 4th round.
The slot machine player is revealing cards from a deck, and choosing to either take the highest ranked card, the lowest 2 ranked cards, or roll dice and attempt to take all cards.