AP PHOTOS: In digital world, the allure of simple games

In a simpler time, all a child or an adult needed to enjoy the outdoors was a ball and a stick. Or maybe an old tire tied to a high branch to fashion a swing. And the only instruction given to children was to be home before dark.

Now there are iPads and computers and television screens and shrinking safe public spaces. But despite the distractions and limitations of space, these images show that the charm of kicking a ball or skipping rope endures.

Sometimes with modifications as a nod to changing times.

Little girls in towns and villages in South Africa still play Diketo — skipping and scooping a handful of pebbles inside a circle marked on the ground. Once it was a game young girls played by the river as they fetched water, but now even little girls in Johannesburg can be spotted tossing tiny pebbles.

Through the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, Iraqi Kurdish men still played the traditional game of Klawane — with one image showing them hunting for a ring hidden underneath a collection of hats. The game is played after Iftar, the evening meal that ends the day's fasting.

Some sports were lost for a while but are fashionable once again, such as in Spain, where little children are spinning tops again.

For every game lost there are new ones, some inspired by video and online games. In Beijing, groups of young people, armed with water guns, are dividing into teams of aliens, zombies and humans.

And yet the charm of the simple things continues to endure.

From Cape Town in South Africa to Tbilisi, Georgia, children still play the games that entertained their parents: hide-and-seek, chasing a used tire down a side street or careening down the road in a little go-kart fashioned out of wooden and plastic containers.

(AP)          

In this Saturday, July 11, 2015 photo, children play hide and seek in Tbilisi, Georgia.

In this July 9, 2015 photo, a young skater falls as he plays in a skate park in Milan, Italy.

In this Wednesday, July 8, 2015 photo, Ellen Rathobotha, plays a indigenous game called "Diketo" in in Kagiso, west of Johannesburg, South Africa. In the game, which requires good hand-eye coordination, stones are placed in a circle or a square and each player then tries to grab the most stones, throw them in the air and catch them in one hand until all the stones are back in the circle or square.

In this Tuesday, July 7, 2015 photo, a woman holds the leash of her dog as she practices slacklining on a street in Central, Hong Kong. 

In this July 2, 2015 photo, a teenager plays soccer in the last rays of the setting sun at a playground in Moscow, Russia. While the Brazilians learn to play on the streets or the beach, Russian children have the "dvor," the yard space between towering apartments blocks. Yard football is a national tradition, and the asphalt pitches are often the first step in the careers of future stars of the Russian national team.

In this Tuesday, July 7, 2015 photo, children play marbles in the village of Mayong, east of Gauhati, India. 

In this Sunday, June 28, 2015 photo, Geoff Green, of Columbus, Ohio, braces himself during the "Mud Mile" obstacle during a Tough Mudder event in Sparta, Ky. The obstacle course features a non-competitive format where teams assist each other through miles of running, jumping, climbing, and crawling on their way to the finish line, all for the sake of a fun challenge.

In this Thursday, July 2, 2015 photo, Madi Clark, 8, of Ottawa, makes a move against her brother, Connor, while playing checkers on a giant game board at the Mount Washington Resort in Bretton Woods, N.H.

In this Monday, July 6, 2015 photo, a child pushes a friend in a home-made go-kart in the Khayelitsha township near Cape Town, South Africa. The vehicle was built with recycled wood, plastic containers and old nails.

In this Saturday, July 4, 2015 photo, a player fires his water gun as he participates in a battle maze in Beijing. Players, also cooling off from the summer heat, divided into teams of aliens, humans, and zombies to soak each other with water guns in the large outdoor maze, which organizers said was inspired by the online and mobile video games that are increasingly popular with China's youth.

In this Tuesday, July 7, 2015 photo, a girl climbs on a bar marked with noughts and crosses (tic-tac-toe) at a park in Hong Kong.

In this Tuesday, June 16, 2015 photo, a group of children play with their spinning tops outside of their National College in Pamplona, northern Spain. After many years forgotten, the Spanish children are returning to games played in years gone by.

In this Tuesday, July 7, 2015 photo, people play blackjack in a pool at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

In this Sunday, July 5, 2015 photo, a young player dodges a pair of opposing tacklers during their American football game in Beijing. 

In this Sunday, June 28, 2015 photo, a man spins a top mount with an inflatable ball during a public sport campaign to promote exercise at Garden Expo Park in Beijing.

In this Tuesday, July 7, 2015 photo, Kurdish men discuss which hat to pick up while playing a game of Klawane in Irbil, Iraq. The traditional Iraqi Kurdish game is only played after Iftar during Ramadan. Two teams of four compete, where one team hides a ring in a traditional hat. The other team has to guess in which hat the ring is hidden. The team that hides the ring scores points for each hat that is leftover after the other team finds the ring. 

In this Saturday, June 20, 2015 photo, a boy runs while playing with a motorcycle wheel in Samugari, Ayacucho, Peru. 

In this Tuesday, July 7, 2015 photo, children play at a park in a public housing complex in Hong Kong.

In this Tuesday, June 23, 2015 photo, Andrea throws a boule during an amateur Petanque match in Paris. In the game, the goal is to throw hollow metal balls as close as possible to a small wooden ball, called a "cochonnet" (piglet), while standing inside a circle with both feet on the ground.

In this Sunday, Sept. 29, 2013 photo, an airborne Buddhist monk kicks a rattan ball during a game of Chinlone in Kawhmu, Myanmar, southwest of Yangon. A combination of sport and dance, it is played between two teams of six players each, passing the ball back and forth with their feet, knees or heads.

In this Sunday, May 17, 2015 photo, a girl holds an umbrella as she skips rope during a rain shower at a park in Beijing. 

In this Wednesday, July 8, 2015 photo, a boy arranges disks for a game of carrom during break time at a school in Kathmandu, Nepal.

In this Friday, June 26, 2015 photo, players battle for the puck as a referee, above, watches during the underwater hockey national championships in Santa Clarita, Calif.