Counter-Strike records demos to the 'SIERRA\Half-Life\cstrike' folder using the '.dem' file suffix.

The following console commands enable you to record and watch demos:

record [demoname_without_file_extension]
records a demo, eg record firstdemo records a demo with the filename firstdemo
stop
stops recording the current game
playdemo
plays a demo back
stopdemo
stops the playback of a demo

Other demo commands available:

playvol 9
sets the volume of the demo being played back
setdemoinfo info
adds information to the demo such as a text title, play 'tracknum', fade
startdemos
plays demos in a loop
timedemo
plays a demo at your system's maximum fps and then reports your system's average fps through the demo on the console after the demo has completed

Counter-Strike allows the player to hold weapons left-handed or right-handed. To alter which hand you use, you can either select this through the CS menu system (Play CS --> Customize --> Advanced) or add this command to your config/autoexec file: setinfo lefthand 0.

Screenshots are saved to the 'SIERRA\Half-Life\cstrike' folder as TGA files using the filename format 'HALFL00E.TGA' (where 00 represents the number of the screenshot taken: it automatically increments with each screenshot taken so you won't overwrite a screenshot no matter how many you take).

You can take screenshots of the action using the F12 key (default setting) or you can bind the option to any key you like using the following command: bind "X" screenshot. Replace 'X' with the key of your choice.

Can't see the crosshair on dust very easily because of its colour? Well, just drop the console in the game and type 'adjust_crosshair'. Each time you do this, the crosshair will change colour - keep trying it until you find a colour you're happy with.

You can remove the animation of the console dropping so it appears instantly instead of crawling down the screen (pet-hate of mine that was). Just add the following to your config/autoexec file: 'scr_conspeed 9999'. (If you don't have the console automatically available, add this to your config/autoexec: 'console 1').

If you want to change the default colour of the text in the console, then use this command: 'con_color RRR GGG BBB'. The R, G and B values should be numbers in the range 000 --> 255, eg con_color 000 000 000 would produce black text, 255 255 255 would produce white, 000 000 255 would produce blue etc.

To enable onscreen monitoring of your fps rate, add this to your config/autoexec: 'cl_showfps 1'.

If you want to monitor how good/bad your connection is to the server you're playing on, you can enable the netgraph by adding this to your config/autoexec (or typing it through the console): 'net_graph 1'.