Enable the Cheat Console in Half-Life
To enable the cheat console in Half-Life, you will need to open the game via the command prompt or a special shortcut which you will create. To do this, do the following:
To enable the console via shortcut:
Locate the Half-Life shortcut on your desktop that you use most often to open Half-Life. Right click it and select Properties. In the target field you will see the location of the file listed, it may be something similar to this:
"C:\Program Files\Sierra\Half-Life\hl.exe"
after hl.exe add in -console, so the target now looks like this:
"C:\Program Files\Sierra\Half-Life\hl.exe" -console
To enable the console via command prompt:
Go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt
type in C:\Program Files\Sierra\Half-Life\hl.exe -console
(see the following note regarding directory paths)
Special note on paths and game versions: There are plenty of versions of Half-Life on the market (Steam, retail, game of the year edition, etc.), therefor your path or method of enabling the console may be slightly different than listed above. Here are some of the differences you can try if you run into a problem:
Steam versions of Half-Life
The console is enabled by default in Steam versions of the game. Open it as normal and press the tilde key "~" to the left of the number one to open the console.
Retail versions of Half-Life (and other download sites)
These copies of the game enable the console in the most common manner, described at the beginning of the article.
Game of the Year versions of Half-Life
For the Game of the Year edition of Half-Life the console is enabled similar to regular retail versions, with one extra command paramater. Use the first method in this article, but add the -dev command as well, so your shortcut or path looks similar to this:
"C:\Program Files\Sierra\Half-Life\hl.exe" -dev -console
Enabling Cheats in Half-Life
Start Half-Life with the console enabled, open the console by pressing the tilde key "~", enter "sv_cheats 1" into the console to enable cheats. If this is the first time you are enabling cheats they will not activate until you load a game, start a new game, or move to another level.
Congrats, cheats in Half-Life are activated, you can snag all of the Half-Life cheat codes on the next page...
