Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Star Wars Customizable Card Game was first released in December 1995 by Decipher, Inc. Decipher also produced the Star Trek Customizable Card Game and The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game.
Lucasfilm chose not to renew Decipher's license to use the Star Wars intellectual property at the end of 2001 after extended negotiation. The license was granted instead to Wizards of the Coast, leaving Decipher legally unable to produce new expansions.
Yes. Since 2002, the Star Wars CCG Players' Committee has maintained the game, organizing major tournaments each year, supporting online play, and releasing new virtual card sets every few months. The committee was originally formed by six player advocates announced by Decipher CEO Warren Holland in January 2002.
Force is the game's primary resource, represented by cards taken from the top of a player's deck and placed in a Force Pile. Spending Force moves those cards to a Used Pile, which recycles to the bottom of the deck. The goal is to force the opponent to exhaust their entire Reserve Deck, Force Pile, and Used Pile combined.
Decipher released eleven full expansion sets, beginning with Premiere in 1995 and ending with Theed Palace in 2001. The full series covered the original trilogy and the first two films of the prequel trilogy, with sets including Hoth, Dagobah, Cloud City, Jabba's Palace, Special Edition, Endor, Death Star II, Tatooine, and Coruscant.
Between 1995 and 1998 the Star Wars CCG was the second-best-selling customizable card game, according to both InQuest and Scrye magazines, and on occasion it actually outsold Magic: The Gathering during those years.