In ScubaVenture you need to dive for treasures! Your goal is to earn as many points as possible by collecting rare fish and opening valuable treasure chests along the ocean floor. Each of the underwater caverns contains several locked treasure chests, keys for the chests can also be located somewhere in the cavern. By collecting the appropriate key and unlocking the matching chest you earn points, and if you can unlock all of the chests you move on to the next level. Collecting certain types of fish also earns points. Poisonous fish, seahorses, electric eels and sea weed can all be found in the caverns and will cause you to lose one of your three lives if you're not careful.

The game screen continuously scrolls vertically, controlling your diver you need to avoid the cavern walls and obstacles while collecting the rare fish and treasures. When the end of the cavern is reached it will loop around back to the beginning allowing another chance to collect the treasures, if one of the two players can collect all treasures the next cavern begins. In the one player game the second diver is computer controlled and occasionally gets in the way while in the two player game both players compete for the same valuable items.