Console commands and help...

[Oversight85]

So long story short, I lost all of my save games and now I'm faced with restarting a game that I've already put 40 hours into.

So here is my question. I have been told that you can open the console and type in certain commands to manipulate the quest completion, spawn items, etc etc. How do I access the console, and where can I find a list of the commands to put me approximately back where I was before?

UPDATE: I have the recovered save game files, but it says they don't work because they're from version -1 and the current version is 48. Is there any way to update the save files or take my game back to the earlier version? That would save a lot of trouble.


Thanks

note: I'm sorry if this question has been answered already, I looked through a lot of threads and didn't find anything specifically like this.
This is my first post so be kind lol

 

[Panpiper]

To open the console, simply hit the 'tilde' key, that's the key between the tab key and the escape key on the upper left of your keyboard. For a good list of console commands, go here: http://www.tweakguides.com/Fallout3_11.html

 

[Oversight85]

I've tried to start a new game I just don't have it in me, is there any way to revert back to "version -1" or get my save files updated to "version 48"?

HELP!

Thanks