by quadibloc » Mon Jan 20, 2020 8:30 pm
Interesting. Except here, I did not find that page on the web during my search for more information.
But I did find two things. I found the claim that both the Buckley Criss-Cross and the Jennings Tic-Tac-Toe started to become available in 1947. And I found a 1949 ad in Billboard for the Buckley Criss-Cross that said that after they brought it out, imitations soon came out.
So the Buckley Criss-Cross is the orignal, while the more widespread Jennings Tic Tac Toe is the imitation? (And I just learned that, presumably much later, outside the United States, there was a Jubilee Tic Tac Toe slot machine with a similar payout structure. Apparently sometimes referred to as an Aristocrat, which would make it Australian.
I've checked further: the Aristocrat Tic Tac Toe was a still later machine, an electromechanical.