...Is that a lift made out of a huge piston array?
yes.
That's awesome, how does it work?
Well, basically, it's... well.. a little complicated.
it's like this:
1: There are two pistons at the bottom, the player stands in the center of them and pushes the button. only one of the pistons really work, the other is just there just for show. Once the button is pushed, the right piston raises and pushes the player up one level.
2: To the player's lower left, a sticky piston pushes an upward facing normal piston out of the wall. the upward facing piston activates as soon as it is pushed out of the wall, raising the player one level.
3: To the player's lower right, a sticky piston pushes an upward facing normal piston out of the wall. the upward facing piston activates as soon as it is pushed out of the wall, raising the player one level.
Steps 1-3 take place in under a quarter of a second. Steps 2 and 3 repeat endlessly until the player reaches the top of the elevator. The pistons themselves retract back to their original state a few seconds after activation.
The whole system works nicely as long as the player stands in the right place. If he stands too far to one side one of two things can happen. He can either be crushed by the pistons and take a few points of damage or he can crushed by the pistons and take a few points of damage followed by a fall to his untimely death.
As a side note: Surprisingly no Lab-Walruses were harmed in the making of this elevator. Indeed, all walruses were simply taken from their natural, non-lab environment and forced into a 2x1 tube deep underground that rocketed them toward the surface at blinding speeds and smelled satisfyingly of non-lab walrus blood at the end of the day.