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Installation and Getting Started
Fig. 3. Slamming home the fresh clipAs mentioned in the first section, Counter-Strike is a modification to Half-Life. So, to put it another way, Counter-Strike is an add-on pack for Half-Life. Yes, you have to have Half-Life to run Counter-Strike, no if's about it. Here's where the true popularity of this mod comes through. Personally, I picked up a copy of Half-Life not too long after it first came out. However, the game got kind of old after playing through the single player. I never really was attracted to Team Fortress for Half-Life, so I removed Half-Life from my computer before the summer of 1999.
In the fall of 1999, some friends had started playing Counter-Strike, calling it the successor to Rainbow Six, our then most played game. So, I first experienced Counter-Strike way back with beta 2.1. But the key here was that I continued to play Half-Life only because of the Counter-Strike mod. And I'm not the only one who's done the same thing. Some have even picked up Half-Life for the sole reason to play Counter-Strike.
So, if you don't have Half-Life yet, now is a good time to pick it up. Furthermore, the game is almost two years old now, meaning your new computer can probably do circles around the software while maintaining some good frames per second. And of course, you'll probably find a good price for the game, too. Once you pick up Half-Life, you'll need to update the game to v1.1.0.0 and then, of course, get Counter-Strike itself.
If you're starting from scratch, you'll need to get the latest client version (currently up to 6.5), which weighs in at a hefty fifty-five megs (for the full version). Fortunately, this kind of download should not be out of the reach of most people. I was forced to pick up the latest update (which was still a hefty thirty some odd megs) over a dial-up connection. All in all, the download will be worth it. And above all, this mod is free. There is absolutely no cost to picking up a copy of Counter-Strike. Gamers who are familiar with other mods may not think too much of this plug, but Counter-Strike really does go above and beyond all other mods.
Fig. 4. A view of the canals in Aztec.Installing is simply a matter of starting up the self-extracting exe file and allowing it to install into the Half-Life directory on your computer. Herein lies the flexibility of the Half-Life system; activating the game is a simple click away. Just start your Half-Life game and select the custom game option. Activate Counter-Strike, and you're on your way. It is important to note that this mod is multiplayer only, and plans for a single player element were long ago scrapped. Select a multiplayer server, just as you had with Half-Life, and you're ready to play. I'll discuss some of the important facets to getting started shortly.
