Kind of on-topic, but Supreme Commander came out in 2007 with two very relevant pieces of technology quite relevant to "whether these would be almost impossible

Kind of on-topic, but Supreme Commander came out in 2007 with two very relevant pieces of technology quite relevant to "whether these would be almost impossible games to really play adequately on a computer". First, strategic zoom: the ability to seamlessly zoom in to the littlest unit and out to the entire battlefield using the scroll wheel of the mouse. As you scrolled out, each unit and building were replaced with strategic icons, but there was no effective concept of a "mini map" needed during play because the whole game space was the one thing. The second thing was native game design for multiple monitors. This let you have the "strategic map" full screen up on one monitor, while you focused in on tactical issues and orders on the second. Because of the first feature though, this was just an arbitrary distinction. As I mentioned, there was no needed conceptually differentiate between the two monitors, as each could be thought of as either a strategic or tactical view (or anything in between) as necessary, and transitioning between the two was so intuitive you basically didn't think about it.