Among all the amazing small businesses in Sacramento, 1-Up Retro is probably the one nearest and…read moredearest to me and my son's heart. I grew up in the golden era of gaming, the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s when weekends meant blowing into dusty cartridges, late-night multiplayer battles, and flipping through Game Informer magazines dreaming about the next big release. Those games weren't just entertainment, they were core memories of my childhood. Now, seeing my son discover and fall in love with those same games and magazines has been something really special. Ever since we moved to Sacramento a few years ago, every visit to 1-Up has felt like stepping into a real-life time machine. The moment you walk in, you're surrounded by nostalgia, memories, and pure joy. Whether it's seeing shelves packed with retro classics or spotting consoles you haven't touched in 20+ years, it instantly takes you back. The owner and staff are all incredibly cool, welcoming, and genuinely passionate about gaming history. I'm always blown away by the little-known facts and stories they know about these old-school titles. You can tell this isn't just a business to them, it's something they truly love. Special shoutout to Travis for the amazing customer service and for hooking my son up with a PS2 Slim in fantastic working condition. Seriously, where else can you walk in today and find a retro console like that, fully functional, along with a huge selection of games ready to relive those memories? I would love nothing more than to see businesses like 1-Up continue to succeed and thrive in the face of online competition. Places like this keep the memories, community, and fun alive for old gamers and new generations alike. Sacramento is lucky to have them. Game over? Not here at 1-Up, the memories just keep hitting "Continue."

This is a friendly large vintage game store. The garage door entrance is a nice touch to the…read moreoverall feel of a store visit. I found so many items I wanted to buy. They carry video games from a plethora of consoles. They also have collectibles, box/collector sets, videos, etc. Long story short, I left with a pile of goodies. I thought the store was spacious to walk around with other people around. The displays were great. I liked how they converted an old grocery store veggie stand into a display on the right side. The only bummer is the tape and stickers used on the merchandise. I bought some mint in box items and the sticker price tag was so hard to peel off. It left a very bad sticky residue. I was able to clean it off most of the items. But, I worried that the paper boxes would be damaged if I used a solution. The staff was super friendly and answered all of our questions. I enjoyed the little lounge area in the front right while waiting for friends to checkout.

Pretty large store. One room is full of comics, the other room has comics along with CD, DVDs, and…read moretrading cards. The selection of new comics is not very large. But most of the main comics that would you would expect are there. They have a huge selection of dollar comics. At least 30 boxers. So much fun to look through for some old comics to complete a run. They have a whole long box full of signed comics if you are into that. They also have about 30 long boxes full of complete runs that you can buy. I could spend hours in that store.

I came in to shop and I saw outside the sign said we buy so I brought In a mystery unopened pack of…read more6 figures he one called it dumb fish from sponge bob and their not even cool asked how much they go for 20 each I asked for 80 he laughed and said I'm good hella disrespectful old man deserves the dump of the place

they fix my ps5 and it working perfect now suggest anybody to shop with them the best in the sac .read more

What a gem! We've been playing some old console games and noticed our wireless wavebirds started…read moredrifting on some games and had sticky buttons. Considering these controllers are over 20 years old it was expected. We did some research and decided to bring our controllers here to get some attention. We were given a quote and dropped off the controllers to be looked at. While we were there we had so much fun looking at all the retro games, consoles, accessories and cards that they have at the shop. Everyone was really nice, helpful and welcoming and we were really impressed with the whole experience. They ended up calling us a couple days later to let us know the diagnosis for our controllers and what they'd be doing to fix them up. The final cost was below the quote and we're so happy to be able to play some classic games with our well loved controllers again.

Great store! The set up is vast and fun, but the employees are what sold me. Very knowledgeable and…read morehelpful especially for beginners. Highly recommend trying out their events too!

sold me a black label game with a greatest hits disc and would not let me return it for a proper…read morecopy at black label value

I love this place. Lots of games and consoles available! I've purchased from here multiple times…read moreand everything worked great every time but 1 of the games that I purchased ended up not working when I tried to play it so I called Dave and he stood on business and refunded my money without question or problems. He didn't have another copy of the game that I bought so I ended up purchasing other items at his store. I try to make it every weekend if I'm available and looking forward to the next visit.

Spent two hours here looking through this garage sale like video game atore when I finally found…read moresomething I wanted he looked up the price on price-chart and wanted to charge me the full price for something I had to work for to find in that mess. Never will come here again when you can just buy it eBay for the same price and save yourself the feeling of being screwed when you do find something you want.

Took a little break from our road trip and was looking for some card shops int he area and found…read morethis. The shop was small but had alot of little things. The shop owner (i think) was cool and friendly. I snagged some Japanese Pokémon boxes and got some really nice pulls. I will try to visit again if I am in the area!

I have been a customer of The Launchpad for roughly fifteen years. My first visit was when I was…read moreinterested in reading comics again, and I would purchase several titles. More recently, a friend has gotten me into Magic: The Gathering. Along with comics, The Launchpad sells a wonderful selection of Trading Card Games, and accessories, at great prices. The owner is always pleasant and answers any questions I may have as I learn Magic. I highly recommend this shop for all your comic and TCG needs.

This place is very clean and well organized. The prices are as advertised and the selection is…read morepretty good. They may be a bit out of the way, but definitely worth a visit if you're in the Sacramento area.

I had a very uncomfortable and disappointing experience at this store today…read more I saw two Xbox games priced the same -- one with a clean case but no disc inside, and another with a disc but a damaged case. Since there was no sign indicating that discs are kept behind the counter, l reasonably assumed the disc was missing and placed it into the better case. Instead of calmly explaining their policy, the employee immediately responded in an aggressive and disrespectful way, telling me to "put that shit back." Only afterward did he explain that the discs are kept at the counter - something that should have been clearly communicated to customers in the first place. A simple explanation would have avoided the entire situation. Being spoken to like that was unnecessary, unprofessional, and made me feel extremely uncomfortable. What made this even more upsetting was reading another customer's review describing how staff openly discussed taking advantage of a child who unknowingly brought in a rare Galaxy 3DS XL and traded it for a regular 3DS -- which is far less valuable. Instead of informing the child of what he had, they reportedly took advantage of the situation and even bragged about it afterward.Seeing behavior like that toward a kid is honestly disturbing and unethical. After experiencing the rude treatment myself, it's hard to believe this was an isolated incident. On top of all of this, many of the games and consoles here are significantly overpriced compared to other stores. This is especially concerning for beginners or casual gamers who may not yet know typical market values. Between the aggressive customer service, lack of clear communication, unethical behavior, and high prices, this is not a store I would return to or recommend. （l've attached a screenshot of that review for reference.）

Great selection selection friendly knowledgeable staff good prices if your looking for harder to…read morefind newer titles this is the place

I recently went to this establishment for the first time last week, and returned because I had a…read moresmall issue. The issue was not a big deal, almost expected, but what was not expected was how much the employee was able to help. Feels great to finally find a game store that still cares more about the customer than ripping off normal people. These guys are great and the prices seem pretty reasonable, especially compared to other places. I don't know if he was an employee or the owner, but I just wanted to thank Tommy for helping me on both of my visits and made me feel like I found a new game store to call home.