Warnings
- The macOS (OS X) release of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.
General information
- Article on the official Valve Developer Community wiki
- GitHub Issue Tracker for Counter-Strike and other GoldSrc-based games
- Steam Community Discussions
Availability
| Source |
DRM |
Notes |
Keys |
OS |
| Retail |
|
Original release. |
|
|
| Retail |
|
Retail re-releases. |
|
|
| Retail |
|
Counter-Strike 1 Anthology. Game data is stored inside GCF files on the disc. If extracted, it is possible to play offline without Steam, by following this guide. |
|
|
| Steam |
|
Bundled with Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. |
|
|
- All non-Steam releases can be redeemed on Steam.
Essential improvements
Retail patches
- Official patches for the original retail release are available at Patches-Scrolls. The Steam version is already up to date.
Skip intro videos
- The retail version is setup to skip the intro videos by default as of 1.5. For older versions do the following.
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
-
*.cfg store the configuration.
- This game does not follow the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.
Video
In-game video settings (Steam version)
|
Set FPS limit[5]
|
- Go to
<path-to-game>.
- Open
userconfig.cfg with a text editor. If it is not present, create it manually.
- Add the following lines into the config file:
gl_vsync 0 // Disable Vsync
fps_max "XX" // Replace "XX" with the desired FPS value.
fps_override 1
Notes
- The
fps_override 1 command disables GoldSrc's arbitrary 100 FPS limit.
- It is not recommended to set the FPS higher than 100 FPS as it might cause some issues such as slower movement.
|
OpenGL texture filtering
|
Disable OpenGL texture filtering[6][7]
|
- Texture filtering is enabled by default when using the OpenGL renderer (This is disabled in Software rendering mode).
- Go to
<path-to-game>.
- Open
userconfig.cfg with a text editor. If it is not present, create it manually.
- Add this console command into the config file:
gl_texturemode gl_nearest_mipmap_linear.
- Save the file.
- Alternatively, this console command can be used:
gl_texturemode gl_nearest.
|
OpenGL overbright lighting
- Overbright lighting increases the rendering dynamic range, resulting brighter and more colorful visuals.
- Overbright lighting normally only works on the Direct3D and software renderers.[8][9]
|
Nvidia cards: Enable the GL extension limiter[10]
|
- Download and run Nvidia Profile Inspector.
- On the Half Life profile, set
Extension limit to On. Apply changes.
- Go to
<path-to-game>.
- Create a file called
autoexec.cfg.
- Add new line
gl_overbright "1".
- Save the file.
Notes
- Doing this will disable multi-texturing, which has the side-effect of disabling detail textures, which may effect the appearance of other games and mods that share
hl.exe, including Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Day of Defeat.
- Doing this disables the Steam version's built-in MSAA. On the Half Life profile, change
Antialiasing - Mode to Override any application setting and Antialiasing - Setting to the desired level of antialiasing (such as 4x [4x Multisampling] for a vanilla look, or 16xS [Combined: 2x2 SS + 4x MS] for maximum antialiasing).
|
Input
In-game key map settings (Steam version)
In-game mouse/joystick settings (Steam version)
Audio
In-game audio settings (Steam version)
In-game voice settings (Steam version)
| Audio feature |
State |
Notes |
| Separate volume controls |
|
Music and SFX volume sliders, can be fine tuned with console commands |
| Surround sound |
|
True for retail. |
| Subtitles |
|
|
| Closed captions |
|
|
| Mute on focus lost |
|
|
| EAX support |
|
EAX 1.0 and A3D 2.0 support lost with SteamPipe updates. Still present in retail. |
Localizations
| Language |
UI |
Audio |
Sub |
Notes |
| English |
|
|
|
|
| Simplified Chinese |
|
|
|
|
| Traditional Chinese |
|
|
|
|
| Czech |
|
|
|
Fan - 1.6 |
| French |
|
|
|
|
| German |
|
|
|
|
| Indonesian |
|
|
|
Fan translation by IGTC Team, download. |
| Italian |
|
|
|
|
| Korean |
|
|
|
|
| Brazilian Portuguese |
|
|
|
Fan translation by Counter Zone; download. |
| Russian |
|
|
|
Available but not shown on Steam. |
| Serbian |
|
|
|
Fan translation, download. |
| Slovak |
|
|
|
Fan - 1.6 1.6 1.4/1.5/1.6 |
| Spanish |
|
|
|
|
| Ukrainian |
|
|
|
Fan translation and full dubbing by TSF, download. |
Network
In-game general multiplayer settings (Steam version)
In-game advanced multiplayer settings (Steam version)
- For more information, see the "Half-Life Dedicated Server" section of our GoldSrc article.
Restoring online play on retail versions
Multiplayer types
Connection types
Ports
| Protocol |
Port(s) and/or port range(s) |
| UDP |
6003, 7002, 27010, 27015, 27025 |
- Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.
Issues fixed
Run the game at screen refresh rate (retail version)
- The retail version of the game defaults to 60 Hz when running with Direct3D renderer in full-screen mode.
Input lag in Direct3D (retail version)
- On certain graphics cards, using the D3D renderer can result in severe input lag, even with disabled VSync.
Set gl_d3dflip 1 in the console[12]
|
Main menu issues (retail version)
- In modern versions of windows the menu is usually not seen in full screen in addition to crashing when loading the game
Your system reported only -0.00K of physical memory, Counter-Strike requires at least 16MB. (retail version)
|
Run the game in compatibility mode for Windows XP[13]
|
Black screen on startup (Steam version)
|
Disable FBO rendering[14]
|
- Add
-nofbo in the game's launch options.
|
Windows 7/Vista performance issues
- In Windows 7 or Vista with modern hardware, some users may experience extremely low frame rates during gameplay.
|
Set HL.exe to high priority[citation needed]
|
- Open Half-Life.
- Press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+Esc in order to open the Task Manager.
- Under the
Processes tab, find HL.exe and right click it.
- Set its priority to high.
|
Performance issues with dynamic lights on Intel graphics (OpenGL)
- Dynamic light sources being present, such as the flashlight or flickering lights, causes significant frame rate drops and lag spikes on Intel graphics.
Shooting sound and fire animation not synchronized
|
Use console commands: cl_lc 1, cl_lw 1"[citation needed]
|
Unable to switch from left-handed to right-handed weapon
|
Change to OpenGL or use console command "cl_righthand 1"[citation needed]
|
Unable to move diagonally
|
Use console commands: cl_upspeed 320, cl_backspeed 400, cl_sidespeed 400 and cl_forwardspeed 400"[citation needed]
|
Prevent admin slow-hacking
|
Use console command "cl_filterstuffcmd 1"[16]
|
Low performance on laptops with a Nvidia graphics cards
|
Opening Nvidia control panel and forcing game to run on dedicated card won't work on laptops. If the game is it's blocked or grayed out, you can do the same operation with an external program such as Nvidia Inspector[17]
|
Low frame rate on old hardware
|
Use theses console commands[citation needed]
|
cl_minmodels 1
gl_texturemode GL_NEAREST_MIPMAP_NEAREST
fastsprites 0 //
cl_shadows 0
cl_corpsestay 0
gl_picmip 3
cl_weather 0
r_decals 0
mp_decals 0
|
Other information
API
| Technical specs |
Supported |
Notes |
| Direct3D |
7 |
Lost with Linux update.[19] |
| OpenGL |
2.1 |
|
| Software renderer |
|
|
| Executable |
32-bit |
64-bit |
Notes |
| Windows |
|
|
|
| macOS (OS X) |
|
|
[18] |
| Linux |
|
|
[18] |
Middleware
Console commands
- An exhaustive list of all Goldsrc console commands
- Games running on the GoldSrc engine can utilize GoldSrc Engine Console Commands for various tasks.
- The console is enabled by default in GoldSrc games, press ~ to open it.
Disable Echos
Use the console command: room_off 1 [20]
|
Disable voice chat
Use the console command: voice_enable 0[citation needed]
|
Use the console command: speak_enabled 0[citation needed]
|
Play Counter-Strike 1 Anthology offline without Steam
- Older version of the game which runs better on slower machines.
- Supports more advanced mods than the WON version.
|
Instructions
|
- Use lessmsi to extract
platform.gcf from the on-disc steam.msi.
- Install the game from
cstrike.msi on the CD.
- Go to
<path-to-game>\SteamApps folder.
- Move the aforementioned
platform.gcf into here.
- Using GCFScape extract the
root folder of each .gcf file into a desired folder, except platform.gcf
- Open
platform.gcf in GCFScape.
- Highlight all the folders on the right and extract them to a new folder on the desktop.
- Rename this new folder to
platform and move into the folder containing the rest of the extracted game data.
- The game requires a
Steam.dll to run. It can be acquired from any complete version of Steam (standard modern Steam, 2004 Steam, etc.), or a 2004 retail copy of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero.
- Place the
Steam.dll into the folder containing the extracted game files.
- The game also requires a
FileSystem_Stdio.dll to run. This can be acquired from a digital Steam copy of any Half-Life based game (steam_legacy beta) or a 2004 retail copy of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero.
- Place the
FileSystem_Stdio.dll into the folder containing the extracted game files.
- Create shortcuts to the
hl.exe with the -game cstrike, -game czero and -game czeror command-line arguments for 1.6, Condition Zero and CZ Deleted Scenes respectively.
- Launching
hl.exe without command line arguments will start Half-Life.
- Input the CD-key to play the game if asked.
Notes:
- The game can now be uninstalled from the control panel without losing the extracted files.
- The file
condition zero models.gcf is optional, it is the HD pack for CS 1.6 and is not needed to run Condition Zero.
|
Mods
The game has a lot of modifications available, most of them can be found on GameBanana. Here are some recommended ones:
- Original CT and T Player Models - When Condition Zero was released, the original player models have been remade. Usually, you can switch from the original (LD) to the remade (HD) player models and vice versa in the Video settings but there have been cases where the LD player models aren't present in the game files. You can use this mod to replace the HD player models back to the LD player models.
- Detailed (HD) Textures - Makes the textures on maps HD. [citation needed]
- Bots - This adds AI bots for Counter-Strike, which allows you to play the game in singleplayer.
- Nexon CSO Skybox Replacements - A remake of nearly all the original skybox textures.
- Remade WON menus by Steam user sensei 黒いバラ were made specifically for the Anniversary Update and are faithful to the originals. Comes in high and low resolution versions.
System requirements
Retail ("WON") version (1.0-1.5)
| Windows |
|
Minimum |
| Operating system (OS) |
95, 98, NT 4.0 |
| Processor (CPU) |
Intel Pentium 133 MHz |
| System memory (RAM) |
24 MB |
| Storage drive (HDD/SSD) |
400 MB |
Steam version (1.6 and newer)
| Windows |
|
Minimum | Recommended |
| Operating system (OS) |
XP | |
| Processor (CPU) |
500 MHz | 800 MHz |
| System memory (RAM) |
96 MB | 128 MB |
| Storage drive (HDD/SSD) |
4 GB | |
| Video card (GPU) |
16 MB of VRAM | 32 MB of VRAM |
| macOS (OS X) |
|
Minimum |
| Operating system (OS) |
Snow Leopard 10.6.3 |
| Processor (CPU) |
500 MHz |
| System memory (RAM) |
1 GB |
| Storage drive (HDD/SSD) |
4 GB |
| Video card (GPU) |
Nvidia GeForce 8
ATI Radeon X1600
Intel HD 3000 |
| Linux |
|
Minimum |
| Operating system (OS) |
Ubuntu 12.04 |
| Processor (CPU) |
Dual-core from Intel at 2.8 GHz
Dual-core from AMD at 2.8 GHz |
| System memory (RAM) |
1 GB |
| Storage drive (HDD/SSD) |
4 GB |
| Video card (GPU) |
Nvidia GeForce 8600/9600GT
ATI/AMD Radeon HD2600/3600
OpenGL 2.1 compatible |
| Sound (audio device) |
OpenAL Compatible Sound Card |
| Other |
(Graphic Drivers: Nvidia 310, AMD 12.11) |
Notes
References
