"Looking for info on meta tic-tac-toe"

According to wikipedia:
"In nine board tic-tac-toe nine tic-tac-toe boards are themselves arranged in a 3×3 grid. The first player's move may go on any board; all moves afterwards are placed in the empty spaces on the board corresponding to the square of the previous move (that is, if a move were in the upper-left square of a board, the next move would take place on the upper-left board). If a player can't move because the indicated board is full, the next move may go on any board. Victory is attained by getting 3 in a row on any board. This makes the game considerably longer and more involved than tic-tac-toe, with a definite opening, middle game and endgame. "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tic-tac-toe
This page has a lot on different types of tic-tac-toe

You can find the On-line Journal for Mathematical Recreations at
http://www.gpj.connectfree.co.uk/index.htm

I don't know which issue covers the game you described.