Time Machine

Macchina del Tempo The Mach 3 Time Machine  is the time travelling vehicle/car in No Time. The time machine is based on the DeLorean DMC-12 Time Machine from Back to the Future franchise.

Background
Modified by E. R. Athor to utilize a temporal displacement unit in 1984, the time machine was built to beat CCORP in the development of nuclear fueled cars, as well as test the ability for one to travel through time using a Time Core. On April 15, 1984, Athor and the protagonist began a test of the vehicle, seeking to send the protagonist and the vehicle one hour into the future. Although the test was successful, mysterious agents infiltrated and destroyed the Manhofer Testing Grounds Athor and the main character worked at. Although Athor escaped the building, the Blueprints for the machine were stolen by the agents. The protagonist escapes with the car to the Pine Island bridge, deciding to travel to the year 2014 in order to see the far future, as well as meeting up with E. R. Athor.

Characteristics
The Time Machine's most notable features are two license plates with the words 'NO TIME' on them, the two gull-wing doors, the caution decals scattered across the body, and the back of the Time Machine which includes an exhaust vent for the Reactor Cooling and the slot for the Reactor energy input. Some wires also connect around the hull of the car, as well as radiators used to give off heat after the temporal displacement has occurred. It has tinted windows and an interior with beige paddings.

The Time Core installed allows the Time Machine to jump between 1 AD and 2077 through the use of the TimeOS, although capable of jumping farther back in time to 4000 BC. The car travels through time by accelerating to 70 miles per hour, where it will then open a hole in space-time with the Time Cannon, enabling the vehicle and driver to jump through time.

The interior includes the Time Conduction lever, a switch controlling a set of lights to illuminate the inside, headlight controls, a screen which shows the "TimeOS", a digital speedometer, and the reactor controls, with a screen next to them showing how much fuel is in the reactor, the maximum being 500%(1000% with meta ark unit), as well as if it is on or off. It also has a lever to control the Hover Conversion you can buy for the car, controls for the lights, and an indicator showing the car's health. The Time Machine also has a rear window, as well as one below the driver's seat.

Reactor
In the game, the car starts off with the reactor at the hood for default, but it can be swapped to replace the trunk instead by visiting the mechanic and changing it for $40. However, the reactor at the back leaves less space for the hood rather than it being in the front. Although, this change does make the car look more like the DeLorean from Back to The Future, and thus fans prefer it to be that way, or players who have played during the demos and the earlier versions of the game when the reactor was always in the back prefer it this way.

Hover Boosters/Wings
The hover boosters are an addition to the Hover-conversion, which allows the car to go much faster by adding two boosters at the back of the car when the car goes above Cruise Mode. Along with the boosters are wings that emerge from either side for more stability in the air. This addon was originally part of the Hover-conversion but it was separated to a different purchase. With them you can get up to 140 (no time speed measurement?) which in miles per hour is about 545 mph, (techno sn found this out in a now deleted/private video along with other ones. Later I just found out I can’t find his channel anymore)

Anti-Gravity Cockpit
The anti-gravity cockpit addon features a button that is next to the reactor controls. The button, implied by the name, removes the gravity of the car's interior, causing everything inside to float into the air until it is deactivated. This addon was also included in the game in the car as default in the earlier versions but it was brought back as an addon.

Hoverconversion Upgrade
Purchasable from Bill the Mechanic; upgrades the hover-conversion to compete in the Pine City race.

How to travel in time
The Mach 3 travels through time in different ways and a precise procedure must be followed in order to allow the time displacement, all of which is anticipated in an understandable way in the tutorial at the beginning of the game, before the prologue.

First the machine needs fuel to produce enough energy to create the wormhole. There are various fuels: Uranium, Fusion Cells, Sir Atom, Ark Unit and the Lightning Rod. Among all these the only ones that are not real fuels are Sir Atom which requires organic substances to charge and the lightning rod which must be struck by lightning to have enough energy.

To be able to place the fuel, you must first place the reactor in the appropriate compartment in front of or behind the machine. The reactor can be: Fission, the first one obtained in the game that supports Uranium and the Ark Unit; Fusion, purchasable from the 6/12 Store from 2020 onwards and craftable with Mr. Crafty, supports Fusion Cells and Sir Atom. The lightning rod is compatible with both reactors.

After the reactor and the fuel corresponding to it have been added, the fuel charge in percentage will be shown on the car display, a percentage of 100% corresponds to a single trip. Apart from the lightning rod which is a bit peculiar, all fuels have a percentage displayed exclusively in hundreds.

Now that the fuel is present it is time to ignite the Time Conduction. The time conduction are divided into three sections: the first starting from the top shows the time of the destination, the second the present time and the third the time from which the last time jump was done. The player must then select the desired time in the destination in the form "mm/dd/yyyy/hh:hh" (m= month, d= day, y= year and h= hour).

Finally, all that remains is to turn on the reactor and make the machine reach 70 miles per hour, which will create a wormhole in front of the machine which, barring unforeseen events, will produce three consecutive flashes. At the third flash, the machine will enter for a few seconds in a kind of completely black space out of time and then exit from another wormhole in the desired era.

If you want to travel again you must first activate the Reactor Cooling and wait for the machine to return to a threshold lower than 300 degrees fahrenheit, if you do not wait until the machine has cooled down sufficiently you risk making it overheat and consequently explode and die with it.

Possible Game Overs
There are various Game Overs involving the Time Machine as the root cause.

Firstly, as already mentioned, the machine can withstand a maximum temperature of around 1800-2000 degrees fahrenheit. The three flashes that occur when the wormhole opens in front of the machine raise the temperature each by about 150 degrees, that's why if you do a time jump with the machine at room temperature (about 50 degrees, it can change depending on the season ) once the jump has occurred, approximately 1450 degrees are reached. Also for this reason it is better to make sure you can make the jump because if you were to stop before the machine has reached the third flash it would heat up and you would have to wait a few minutes to reach the safety temperature again. It is therefore for this reason that you avoid traveling in time with the car at a temperature above 300 degrees which otherwise risks exploding and causing the Game Over which will present the writing "CAUSE: The car overheated!".

Another way to make Game Over is excessive machine damage. The machine on the display shows the life points as a percentage with a maximum of 100%. When the car, due to collisions with objects and buildings, reaches 0% it explodes causing Game Over. The life of the machine can be restored (before it reaches 0% of course) at any time by going to Bill the Mechanic I or II depending on the era, he will charge a price commensurate with the damage that has been done to the machine. The car can also be damaged by gunshots especially those of the EPA, if the player shoots the car with the EPA mark III it will do so much damage that it will be destroyed instantly even if at maximum life. This is why you also need to be careful about hiding your car when you go to times when cars don't exist yet (so before 1910), as doing so risks the Time Agents's coming, and in fighting this last ones that appear in front of the car it is very probable to accidentally hit the car and cause an accidental Game Over which will have the message "CAUSE: The car exploded from too much damage!".

Trivia

 * The Time Machine is loosely inspired on the DeLorean, specifically the one from the time travel film series Back to The Future, and it going 90 miles per hour is a reference to the protagonist, Marty McFly saying to a group of Libyan terrorists, "Lets see if you bastards can do 90..."


 * The design of the car is actually based on one of the earlier sketches of the DeLorean Time Machine, made by Ron Cobb.


 * In the prologue it is possible to see previous versions of the Time Machine used by Edward and the Protagonist before making the Mach 3. The first is the Mach 2 an earlier version of the Mach 3 which recalls the old model of the machine present in the Legacy version of No Time before the 2021 updates, the Mach 2 featured in the prologue is just this old model but shattered as if it had slammed into a wall at full power, this condition probably derives from an experiment by the two protagonists gone wrong. The second is a blue British police box which is obviously a reference to the TARDIS from the sci-fi series Doctor Who. Finally there is also a refrigerator, the latter is a reference to the time machine that they would have liked to use initially in Back to the Future, an idea that was discarded in favor of the DeLorean known today.

Gallery
Vehicle Editor

The vehicle can be customized by Bill the Mechanic I or II depending on whether you go to the late 20th century or early 21st century. The modifiable parts are: the lights, the wheels and the reactor compartment. Changing the reactor compartment involves moving it from the front, where it is by default, to the rear of the machine. (Maybe in one of the future updates, they might add color customization to the wheels, headlights, and the reactor. Maybe even install a teleportation switch!)

From version 0.785 it is available the possibility to modify the car at will to customize it without limits. Also you can publish your creation in the form of a mod which will be available in the Steam workshop. ATTENTION: loading a save with a time machine different from the one used during that game could result in the loss of objects, therefore pay attention to the cars selected in the game menu. Also, in-game customization is only possible for the default car and not for vehicle mods.