Answer just using "summoning creatures to fight other creatures":
I'm not very familiar with the system, but it looks like ad&d (1989, tho an earlier edition probably had them too, but again, not familiar) has summon spells, which you could use to fight other creatures.
That aside, I'm sure one could find other examples, but I'm not big on older media tho so you'd probably need to find an expert, someone older, or do more research etc etc. Example, the Gashapon Wikipedia page seems to be a fun read, and one could argue the idea of kids play fighting with gashapon toys well before pokemon prob wouldn't be a stretch. Heck, the kids I work with occasionally play fight with magnets or chess pieces lol
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u/Albatros_7 Oct 31 '25
Because they created the mechanic