Crushed by a pushed block

Verified against the spelunky.ai port v0.1.12 on 28 October 2026.

A push block moves a pixel at a time ahead of the player, until something solid is in its way. Then it should stop him too. But the code that moves him only stops the block, so a player who keeps pushing creeps into it at the pushing speed, and once his middle is inside it, he's crushed. In the high scores room, its block stops right past the reset button, so that's where it shows.

In the high scores room, the player has pushed the block onto the reset button, and it has stopped against the sign past it. He keeps pushing and creeps into the block until it crushes him: blood, and he's gone, but no game over follows ^[1].

moveTo moves the player a pixel at a time, and when a block that can be pushed is in his way, it moves the block a pixel too, unless something solid is beyond it:

      if object_get_parent(solidId.object_index)=oMoveableSolid and canPushMoveableSolids()
      {
        //we must move the moveable solid, unless there is another solid (moveable or non-moveable) in it's way
        with solidId
        {
          if place_meeting(x+1,y,oSolid)      //there will be a collision!
          {
            break
          }
          else

The break is meant to stop the player's loop. But in GameMaker 8 a break inside with only leaves the with, so the loop goes on and steps the player into the block anyway ^[2]. Nothing else stops him: the step keeps him pushing while a pushable block is beside him ^{[3] [4]}, so he moves into it at the pushing speed, a pixel every other step, until his middle is inside it. Then his step's crush check takes 99 hearts and hides him ^[5]. In the high scores room, the room's own guard puts his hearts back the next step ^[6], and the code that ends the game only runs on a level, so he's left invisible, with no game over ^[7].

Push a block until it stops against something solid, and keep pushing. It's the same with any block and any solid. In the high scores room, push the block onto the reset button and keep holding toward it: its only stop is the sign just past the button. The replay of the clip does that: the block stops on the button (frame 835), and the player, still pushing, is crushed ten steps later (845), invisible and with no game over, and his hearts are back to 4 the step after ^[8].

The spelunky.ai port reproduces it exactly: it's in docs/quirks.md's list of the 1.1 source's bugs ^[7], and the oracle's fingerprint of the replay pins the block's stop and the crush. No option turns it off.