Magic missile against locks?

Question

The party is about to enter the Hall of the Fire Giant King. Although I am running a 5e game, I am rereading the 1e module to compare it and altering a few things as I go. Today I ran across the following in the description of Snurre's treasure room:

G3 p.19 (emphasis in the original):

These locks cannot be picked by thieves and must be opened by "bending bars" or knock or magic missile spell.

I went back and checked the descriptions of magic missile across various editions. I can't find anywhere there is a version of the spell that positively says that it can be used to open locks. In second edition, the description specifically says that it does not damage objects such as locks.

Aside from the reference in G3, is there anywhere else, in any edition, that magic missile was indicated as being a way to open locks?

Answer 1

AFAIK: No

From my memory and a quick search, this appears to be the only mention of Magic Missile opening locks.

Gary Gygax has stated that these modules were written before the AD&D Players Handbook which was before the Dungeon Masters Guide so it's not surprising that they contain things that didn't make the final cut.

I did the Giants series in-between writing the Monster Manual, and before starting on the Player's Handbook.