Thanks for all the examples, btw...
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Guest,PMB: I didn't get a chance to learn Latin in school, but an online translator says "tangere" can mean three different things:
-touch, strike
-border on, influence
-mention

And the first one sounds very likely. Though that doesn't really explain the French "Cat", but that one probably developed on its own, seperate from tig/tag/tick/ticky. Thanks ^_^
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Azizi: We never played hide-and-seek at school - at least, not once we were about 7 or older (not a cultural thing, just a lack of hiding places and a large amount of kids in the way). But when we played it elsewhere, we only ever counted, then said ready-or-not-here-I-come - I doubt we'd have remembered all of "All hid!" I still find children learning long rhymes like that very impressive.

But then, I did read somewhere that young children used to be made to learn enormous poems (not to mention bible passages) in Britain, not so long ago. They were sometimes called upon to recite poetry to their elders, and they tried, or were forced, to memorise many different ones. And since that is no longer done in or out of schools (well, in those that follow a government curriculum - I suppose some schools might still force memorising of poetry), that part of our brains isn't developed at a young age and, consequently, we find it more difficult to memorise rhymes/poems (or, arguably, to memorise ANYTHING) in later life. Which is a shame, because oral traditions will get lost. I suppose that's what Mudcat is for. Anyway, I digress...
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Bert: We played:

Stick-in-the-mud

Polo (no, not the thing with horses)
Tag
Rangers 1-2-3 (a game we were very proud of having invented)
Fishy, Fishy, Swim my Ocean
Tig-on-the-Line (NO ONE knew the rules)
Skipping [with a rope or a french-skipping-rope, mostly by girls]
Hand-clapping [mostly by girls]
Kings and Queens arriving [I discussed this in detail on another thread]
Football [only in a certain area, for one year at a time]
Hopscotch [VERY rarely]
Mummies and Daddies [only the REALLY wee kids]

I collect marbles. I think it's such a shame that no kids up here know how to play it :(

-Viracocha