Comment Rogue (Score 4, Insightful) 228
Invented the very concept of procedural generation.
This was the first major differentiator of computer games vs hardware-designed games. Pong, for instance, offered nothing at the time that was better than pinball machines. It's only novelty was "And it was done on a computer!"
Same thing for Zork - perform your own adventure books were already well known when it was written. It just automated the process of "If you enter the cave, go to page 39".
Rogue, on the other hand, was the first computer game that did things no other media could accomplish. Every game was unique. And even today, people speak of procedurally generated games as "Rogue-likes".