A console is a command line interface where the personal computer game

Personal computer game

A PC game, also known as a computer game, is a video game played on a personal computer, rather than on a video game console or arcade machine...

's settings and variables can be edited while the game is running. Consoles also usually display a log of warnings, errors, and other messages produced during the program's execution

Execution (computers)

Execution in computer and software engineering is the process by which a computer or a virtual machine carries out the instructions of a computer program. The instructions in the program trigger sequences of simple actions on the executing machine...

. Typically it can be toggled on or off and appears over the normal game view.

The console is normally accessed by pressing the backtick key ` (frequently also called the ~ key; normally located below the ESC key) on QWERTY

QWERTY

QWERTY is the most common modern-day keyboard layout. The name comes from the first six letters appearing in the topleft letter row of the keyboard, read left to right: Q-W-E-R-T-Y. The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden typewriter and sold to Remington in the...

 keyboards or the ² on AZERTY

AZERTY

AZERTY is a specific layout for the characters of the Latin alphabet on typewriter keys and computer keyboards. The layout takes its name from the first six letters to appear on the first row of alphabetical keys...

 keyboards, and is usually hidden by default. In most cases it cannot be accessed unless enabled by either specifying a command line argument when launching the game or by changing one of the game's configuration file

Configuration file

In computing, configuration files, or config files configure the initial settings for some computer programs. They are used for user applications, server processes and operating system settings. The files are often written in ASCII and line-oriented, with lines terminated by a newline or carriage...

s.

History

A classic console is a box that scrolls down from the top of the screen, and is found in most computer games. This style was made popular with Quake (1996). There are other forms of console:

• Quake III Arena
  Quake III Arena
  Quake III Arena , is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game released on December 2, 1999. The game was developed by id Software and featured music composed by Sonic Mayhem and Front Line Assembly...
  
  has one or two consoles, depending on the platform the game was released for. The first is the internal console, which exists on all platforms. The second is an external console, created via the Windows API
  Windows API
  The Windows API, informally WinAPI, is Microsoft's core set of application programming interfaces available in the Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was formerly called the Win32 API; however, the name "Windows API" more accurately reflects its roots in 16-bit Windows and its support on...
  
  . The console printing function directs to both, likewise, both consoles can also have text input to them. The external console is used for dedicated servers and to log startup of the engine. Finally, the external console is also used to show errors and display debugging output should the game crash.
• Dark Engine
  Dark Engine
  The Dark Engine is the computer game engine used for the Looking Glass Studios games Thief: The Dark Project , Thief II: The Metal Age , and the Looking Glass/Irrational Games title System Shock 2 .-Features:...
  
  's console shows output up to 4 lines in length and is accessed by pressing 3 particular keys at the same time.
• Lithtech
  Lithtech
  Lithtech is a game engine which was initially developed by Monolith Productions in collaboration with Microsoft. Monolith later formed a separate company, LithTech Inc., to deal with further advancements of the engine technology and currently, after a change of its corporate identity, LithTech Inc...
  
  's console has no output and is used mainly for entering cheat codes.
• The Source engine
  Source engine
  Source is a 3D game engine developed by Valve Corporation. It debuted in June 2004 with Counter-Strike: Source and shortly thereafter Half-Life 2, and has been in active development ever since...
  
  's console is a window all by itself.

Common commands

• sv_cheats 1: Used to activate cheats in Quake engine
  Quake engine
  The Quake engine is the game engine that was written to power 1996's Quake, written by id Software. It featured true 3D real-time rendering and is now licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License ....
  
   or Source engine
  Source engine
  Source is a 3D game engine developed by Valve Corporation. It debuted in June 2004 with Counter-Strike: Source and shortly thereafter Half-Life 2, and has been in active development ever since...
  
   based games.
• god: Used to toggle God mode
  God mode
  In health-based video games, god mode, infinite health or infinite life, is a game mechanic or cheat that prevents a playing character from being harmed, sustaining damage, and ultimately, dying...
  
  .
  • buddha: Similar to god mode in Source games, but the player can take damage down to a health of 1, but not die.
• noclip or ghost: Used to toggle Noclip mode
  Noclip mode
  In some video games, noclip is a video game cheat command that prevents the first-person player character camera from being obstructed by other objects and permits the camera to move in any direction, allowing it to pass through such things as walls, props, and other players.-Description:The term...
  
  .
• fly: Similar to Noclip mode, the player is only constrained to the walls and boundaries of the map.
• impulse 101: Used to spawn all items in a game at the player's exact position for a moment to give the player every item in Half-Life based games. Similar to "giveall".
• giveall or give all Gives every item in the game.
• addbots (number): When AI bots
  Computer game bot
  A bot, most prominently in the first-person shooter types , is a type of weak AI expert system software which for each instance of the program controls a player in deathmatch, team deathmatch and/or cooperative human player. Computer bots may play against other bots and/or human players in unison,...
  
  are available, this will add a number of bots equal to the number inputted by the player.
• allammo: Gives the player maximum ammo.
• kill or suicide: Causes the player to die, used when a player gets stuck during a game.
  • explode: In Source games, this will cause the player to explode.
    • Left 4 Dead being a notable exception, where the explode command was used to trigger the Boomer's on-death attack prematurely.
• give or summon: When used with the name of an entity, spawns that entity at the players location.
• quit: Quits the game immediately