Amulet of Yendor

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In several computer games, the Amulet of Yendor ("Rodney" spelled backwards) is the object the player needs to retrieve from the dungeon in order to win. It first appeared in Rogue and its sequels UltraRogue and Advanced Rogue; later Hack and NetHack also featured it, but with the added condition that it must be brought to the "Astral Plane" and sacrificed for the player to ascend (win). The amulet is featured in the MMORPG, the Kingdom of Loathing, and is a useless "prank" item obtained from using a certain rare in the game.

The origin of the name Yendor is unclear. The name might allude to the Witch of Endor, a biblical character who owned a talisman with magical powers. One Rogue author has a vague memory of it simply being chosen because it sounded "fantasy-like" (cf. Mordor, Gondor, and other similar place names in J. R. R. Tolkien's books) and was amusing because it was Rodney spelled backwards.

In the words of Michael Toy,

"The idea was that the dungeon had been constructed by a wizard, and that the quest was to retrieve his lost amulet. In a weak attempt at humor, the all-mighty wizard who creates the dungeon is given the name 'Rodney' spelled backwards. Rodney was selected at random, in an instant, as a very unlikely name for a powerful wizard. Through the brilliant (or so it seemed when I was 19), technique of reversing the letters of his name, this secret joke was now "hidden" in a very reasonable 'fantasy sounding' name of Yendor." (Gondor, Mordor, etc.)

Some microcomputer ports of Rogue (but possibly not the original UNIX version) had 'Rodney' as the default player name^{[citation needed]}.