Are the gargoyle switches a newer Doom feature?

[printz]

Hardly any of the original Doom 1 episodes contain lion, satyr or gargoyle switches. They're almost always as decorations, except for a couple of instances where they work as doors (and the switch animation could have well been absent without looking strange).

Were these switches inactive during early versions of Doom?

[Dragonsbrethren]

E2M4 originally had a satyr switch in v1.1:

http://tcrf.net/Doom_(PC)#E2M4:_Deimos_Lab

[Enjay]

I haven't checked anything older but the graphics for all three switches (in both their off and on states) are present in the Press Release beta WAD. I don't know if they are used in the levels or not though but I would take that as a fair indication that they have been available for a long time (i.e. since before Doom was released).

[Doominator2]

Yah i really don't remember seeing any in doom but I do recall a few in Thy Flesh Consumed.

[myk]

Perhaps they were made into switches near the end of DOOM's development, but maybe they weren't used because the level designers felt they weren't too evident as switches and generally preferred the buttons and eyes instead.