How do I access the Half-Life console?
Accessing the Half-Life Console
Contrary to past Quake-engine games, Half-Life does not, by default, allow you to access the console from within the game. To activate the console, use the following method.
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Find the shortcut icon that loads up Half-Life. Right-click on it and select Properties from the pop-up menu.
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The properties dialog for the shortcut will come up. The first available text box, marked Target, is what you'll want to edit.
The default value here will be the path and executable of Half-Life. Something like c:\games\half-life\hl.exe for example. Change this to c:\games\half-life\hl.exe -console (the path will be different for you, so just add the ' -console' to the end of what's already there). Note that there is a space between "...hl.exe" and "-console".
You can add any other parameters you'd like to use here as well. For instance, I have the following parameter list: -dev -console -numericping which causes the game to start in developers mode, with the console activated. and with pings displayed as numbers rather than dots (for net games).
This article originally appeared at the Half-Life Editing Resource Center