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The Journals of Doc Surge is the personal blog of Chris Billows. This blog’s purpose is to explore ideas and concepts through the discipline of writing as an exercise to further personal understanding.

Check out more about me, some of my thoughts on Games and Hockey.

Aug 29

TTRPGs and Me

August 29, 2026 by Chris Billows in Hobby Heedings 0 comments tags: dungeons & dragons, memories, nostalgia, ttrpgs
I was born in 1970 and grew up loving superheroes, fantasy, sci-fi, monsters, computers, video games, and Dungeons & Dragons. I’ve always gravitated to the nerd sub-culture. In thinking about my past hobbies, I thought it would be fun to review my brief history of with TTRPGs that lasted 4-5 years during my teenage era and left a huge imprint on me. It was 1982 and my cousin Russell brought over a blue box which mixed fantasy storytelling with stats, which was a combination that blew my mind. The box came with some books and dice I’d never seen before. The book looked like this: Me and my buddy Jason were directed to rollup characters and we played X1: Isle of Dread. We didn’t play it very well as we really didn’t know what we were doing but boy did we have fun. We didn’t roleplay, we didn’t have a character story arc or campaign plot. It player like a 1980s Fantasy A-Team where we moved on from problem to problem and we solved the problems by killing everything. We were wandering murdering hobos. The adventures we played in our first campaign was X1, B4, X2, and X4 and then […]
Jan 17

Happy New Year for 2026

January 17, 2026 by Chris Billows in Business Beller, Hobby Heedings, Uncategorized 0 comments tags: Awareness / Understanding, Blogging, Business Development
. I am wishing everyone a Happy New Year for 2026. I wish that the new year brings you peace, good health, and good fortune. This upcoming year will be another one where I balance my career with my sideline. I’ve definitely noticed that since hitting my mid-50s I don’t have the energy I once did and working on the sideline projects has been much slower. This has forced me to re-evaluate my priorities and I have begun a review of my projects including honestly reviewing where I am putting my energy. . In summary: . As I’ve said previous New Year Days, I remain thankful for the privilege to pursue these projects and wish that everyone could have the same opportunity.
Nov 09

Video Game Development Timeline in Winnipeg & Manitoba

November 09, 2025 by Chris Billows in Nerdism in Winnipeg 0 comments tags: Book Writing, Video Game History, Winnipeg
Welcome to the Winnipeg & Manitoba Video Game Development History Timeline (Nov/2025). After compiling the previous timeline, I wanted to create a timeline of Video Game Development in Winnipeg & Manitoba. This timeline is not complete and I welcome additions and corrections (see link at bottom). The criteria to be listed on this timeline is: A) Must be (or include) a Winnipeg / Manitoba based developer and, B) Must release commercial games on a Console/Mobile/Steam/VR platform, or C) Be noteworthy for some other reason that has an impact on video gaming. — 1970 – University of Manitoba launches its Department of Computer Science 1971 to 1999 – research pending on arcades, retail selling computers and consoles, and early BBSs and Internet in Winnipeg and Manitoba 2000 – New Media Manitoba is formed 2001 – Complex Games is formed 2006 – Fortune Cat Studios is formed 2007 – Bit Blot (with Winnipeg’s Alec Holowka) releases Aquaria and wins awards and critical acclaim 2008 – Government of Manitoba introduces Manitoba Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit 2008 – Government of Manitoba launches Canada’s First Interactive Digital Gaming Business Incubator 2008 – Fortune Cat Studios hosts an open house 2009 – Complex Games releases […]
Oct 12

GameDev Skills: Year Four

October 12, 2025 by Chris Billows in Business Beller, Hobby Heedings 0 comments tags: Awareness / Understanding, Business Development, Change of Mind, GameDev Skills, Personal Resolve, Self Analysis
Like Napoleon Dynamite, I’m going to embellish what I did this past year. Yeah, I was hunting wolverines with my uncle in Alaska. It would explain in a cool way why I got so little accomplished. Here is a summary of what happened this past year: . . Like I did with Heropath, my plan is to start refactoring the Roguelike codebase to fit what I want to do. I attempted to two experiments with AI Coding and I must say they were pretty atrocious. I will use AI to help educate me but it will be up to my own raw effort to learn what to do. . Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! I’m thankful for my family, friends, and the amazing software and tutorials that has allowed me to get to this point. “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” ~ Simone Weil
Sep 13

Video Game Development Leads: Electronic Game Machines

September 13, 2025 by Chris Billows in Nerdism in Winnipeg 0 comments tags: Book Writing, Video Game History, Winnipeg
Welcome to the next installment of Nerdism in Winnipeg. The previous post talked about Nerds by outlining various definitions, this post talks about Electronic Game Machines, and illustrates what they are through an extensive timeline. I do acknowledge that neither of these two posts provide any insights into Winnipeg as I am still in the definition stage of this project. Both of these topics are considered to be leads and are building blocks in my book’s theory that I’ll post about in the near future. This post took me about 18(!) months to write because of the volume of information I collected but it was worth it (I think). This post provides what I think is the first of its kind to my knowledge: The Electronic Game Machine Timeline, a comprehensive timeline history of video games across all of its segments! What is an Electronic Game Machine? It is any electronic device built to assist humans to play games. These electronic devices are the core of the video game industry and encompass everything including university computers, video arcade machines, video game consoles, personal computers, handhelds, mobile devices, smartphones, etc. There is a nice precedent to my definition that I just discovered […]
Feb 09

The Borderland

February 09, 2025 by Chris Billows in Spirit Speculations 0 comments tags: Human Condition, Poem
Today is my 55th Birthday and with it I have reached a privileged position. I am a contributor and beneficiary of a defined pension that allows me to officially retire! It has been close to 30 years of working and contributing to the public good through my efforts in health care. I am thankful that overall there were few moments that work required me to compromise my values. . . Now that I can officially retire there is a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, but also some trepidation. I am now in the twilight of my career and my working life will soon be over. While I don’t plan to retire right now, I am sure that I will retire in the next 2 to 3 years. There is still some work to do and it can never hurt to pad the savings accounts! My identity will need to change, a rebirth essentially will be required. This is a crossroads moment and I need to begin thinking on who I will become when I do retire. Below is a poem I wrote to commemorate this moment. I also wrote two other poems: Mid-Century Contemplation and Middle of the Muddle which you’re […]
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