Time Machine is an American game show where contestants compete to answer trivia questions about popular culture and recent history to win prizes.
Reg Grundy Productions produced the series, and upon its premiere Time Machine was one of three Grundy series airing on NBC (Sale of the Century, which followed Time Machine on NBC's daytime schedule, and Scrabble were the other two).
Most of the questions used focused on nostalgia, popular culture, and recent history, and more specifically what year a particular event occurred.
If two or more contestants were equally close, John would read a question related to the Time Capsule year to the tied players; the first one to buzz in with the right answer won.
The winner from the first half of the show and the returning champion competed to see which one of them would be advancing to the bonus round.