Roger Sieber, who worked in his family’s bakery in the Rhine Valley, had purchased a MicroVax “minicomputer” with friends and had been running a game on it since 1989 or 1990. In the late '80s, it was called Galactic Empire; the Star Wars reference came later because of the spaceship names. It was initially redeveloped as a port specifically for a VAX (DEC’s 32-bit minicomputer series) and took advantage of the mainframe architecture’s multi-user capabilities.

Later, starting in 1995, “The Galactic Empire” was also available with a web frontend accessible at rheintalweb.ch/empire and later at games.ch. Sieber initially operated the multiplayer game via a Paragon BBS (Amiga), ported it 1990 to the Microvax (Dial-Up and Telnet), then continued its development on PC, and ran it (with payment option) on the web from 1995 to 1999. In the years that followed, the domain games.ch was used as a gaming portal and, starting in 2008, as an online gaming magazine. Sieber still operates the professional gaming magazine games.ch on the same domain today and, as one of the few, makes a point of documenting developments in Swiss gaming culture. The original Galactic Empires website from 1995–1999 is still partially available on archive.org in the 1997 timelines. Both the registration page and the help pages, as well as the forum, can still be found there. Technology and biology merge in classic Giger style.

This multiplayer game, created by and for space strategy fans, joins the ranks of web games that enjoyed great success starting in 1997, especially during the Asian financial crisis, when people were unemployed but still went to internet cafes every day to play web games—most of which were free but could be played in real time. In Europe, the browser-based game OGame (2002) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OGame—developed by Gameforge in Karlsruhe—became particularly well-known starting in 2002.

Players were greeted as follows: „Welcome to the Galactic Empire. Well... Here you are. Just another new emperor with a hoard of cash, some food, and the massive population your father left you on these three measly planets. What are you waiting for? Start buying some weapons! Do what nobody in your family has done before! CONQUER! DESTROY! YOU can rule the universe if you TRY ... ”

The Galactic Empire (GE) is a turn based multiuser webgame. You get a turn every 8 hours. You can get a shorter turn interval if you become a supporter. Version 2.0 let you have 3 turns a day, respectively 5 turns a day as supporter.

At the beginning of each turn you get a short overview of the things that happened so far. You get a short briefing of all your governmental incomes: Taxes - Ore Mining - Tourism - Food-Production - Interest Rates.

Your goal is colonization and conquering planets. You have starships and troops that can attack other armies and planets. A planet has one function each. An agricultural planet produces food for your people. Ore and mining planets produce credits. A military planet produces warships and is a defensive asset in battle. A fun and leisure planet produces credits if your people are happy, but cost credits if they are not happy. And a government planet is needed every 25 planets to guarantee the harmony of your empire.

The Intergalactic Savings Bank keeps your money safe and pays interest. It cannot be robbed. It is possible to form alliances as defensive contracts. But military units that are moved into the alliance fleet cannot be retracted into your own army. Spying is also important for some missions.

The game ran in tournaments for up to 2 months at the time. The first event took place in 1995. The players had the option to pay a supporter fee either by bank transfer or postal mail. The server was able to accommodate up to 300 players. And the chat that accompanied the game was extensively used – and it became one of the biggest chat-systems in Eastern Switzerland: regiochat.ch.