Hawthorne Center was one of the chain’s signature mall outposts, opening in the late 1970s / early ’80s boom when Bally was carpeting America’s shopping centers with blinking marquees. Detroit‑area teens could hear the Hawthorne Center Castle’s attract modes while skating at the nearby roller rink, per a Southfield nostalgia thread.
By the 1990s, the site had become a rite of passage for local teens—quarter stacks on the cocktail Pac‑Man, first dates under the glow of Mortal Kombat II, and the unmistakable “Aladdin’s” token clink in the coin tray. It finally closed during Namco’s early‑2000s retrench (some locations flipped to Tilt or Cyberstation, others simply went dark), but alumni still share memories in forum threads and nostalgia groups.