Thunderfist

Thunderfist was an artifact lucern hammer (pronged polearm) that appeared in NetHack, with similar properties to the modern Mjollnir. It existed only in NetHack 3.0.0, 3.0.1 and 3.0.2.

NetHack 3.0.0 was the first version to implement unique artifacts and featured several new artifacts - among them the lucern hammers named Thunderfist and Ogresmasher. The DevTeam may have erroneously chosen the lucern hammer as their base items, unaware that it was a polearm. In NetHack 3.0.3, the DevTeam added a new weapon type, the war hammer, switched the base items of both artifacts to it, and renamed Thunderfist to Mjollnir.

Origin

The origin of the name "Thunderfist" is uncertain, but it appears in multiple computer games of the fantasy genre; the name tends to have association with both dwarves and fighting. Angband has an artifact called the Two-Handed Flail 'Thunderfist'.

Dudley's dungeon

In Dudley's dungeon, Thunderfist is the subject of L's strip for 16 September 2005. The strip tries to explain why Mjollnir is a lucern hammer, as if the change in 3.0.3 never happened.