Half-Life Console Detailed Help

Here are step-by-step instructions for making it so that you can access the Half-Life console. This requires passing a command-line parameter to the Half-Life executable (hl.exe). The parameter required is "-console" (and there are other parameters for other purposes). If you don't understand that, or don't care, that's OK -- just follow the instructions carefully and you'll have the console open very soon. 
  1. Go to Start -> Find Files or Folders

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  3. Enter "hl.exe" into the Named: box and click Find Now (omit the quotes).

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  5. In a few seconds a red Halflife icon will appear in the large white window at the bottom of the Find dialog.

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  7. Use your RIGHT mouse button to drag the red HalfLife icon and drop it anywhere on your desktop (not in a window or folder, just the anywhere on the background).

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  9. Find the new icon on your desktop called "Shortcut to hl.exe", right click on it, and select Properties.

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  11. In the "Shortcut to hl.exe Properties" dialog that appears, click on the Shortcut tab at the top.

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  13. Click inside the white Target: box and add a SPACE followed by "-console", like this: " -console" (no quotes) to the end.  Don't forget the space before the "-console" part. So you should have something like C:\SIERRA\Half-Life\hl.exe -console NOTE:If your path to hl.exe contains spaces, you MUST put double quotes before the C: and after the hl.exe, but not around the -console.  For example:"C:\Program Files\SIERRA\Half-Life\hl.exe" -console

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  15. Click OK, then double click the "Shortcut to hl.exe" icon on your desktop to play HalfLife withthe console available. 

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  17. You can get to the console by clicking the gray "Console" button in the upper-left corner of the main menu or, once you are playing the game, hit ` (they key with the ~ tilde symbol on it -- but don't hold down shift).

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  19. If the tilde (~) key doesn't bring down the console, try clicking the CONSOLE button on the main menu.  If that works, you can then try binding a key to toggleconsole ('bind c toggleconsole' without the quotes).  If that works, you can permanently bind the key by creating a text file named autoexec.cfg in Half-Life/Sierra/Valve containing the line 'bind c toggleconsole' (no quotes, and you can replace the 'c' with any key you want).

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  21. When using the console, you can use the up and down arrows to recall previously typed lines of text for modification and editing.  You can also use PageUp and PageDown to scroll the console screen.
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