A good example of rock paper scissors is civilization. Spearmen kill mounted, mounted kill archers, archers kill spearmen.
Err, really? It's been a little while, but I'm pretty sure Civ 1 had nothing like that; it only had a very simple ADM system where offense was compared to defense, regardless of source, and it didn't have archers at all. Civ 2 gave one spear defensive unit (Pikemen, a medieval unit) a bonus against mounted units, but cavalry and knights had no particular bonuses against archers or other offensive infantry units. Civ 3 and 4 didn't have an RPS chain, either; in 3, archers' primary advantage over cavalry was being a bit cheaper, for they otherwise had the same offensive ability (ADM, again) as horsemen, but no special bonus (nor horsemen a special weakness) against spearmen. In 4, cavalry had advantages against siege (I think it was added in an expansion) and spearmen against cavalry, but archers don't really play into either, so I'm not certain if that's what you're referring to either. I think only 4 and 5 may have something like this, but in addition to failing to form loops in 4, they're both a bit late in the day to be serving as inspirations for much of what's being brought up.
EDIT: Also, that's a good point by Kanil. What's the difference between rock-paper-scissors and combined arms?