As EA is quick to point out, there's no catch; players can download the Windows PC version of SimCity 2000 Special Edition for free, as long as. Soft otp token.

Portable runner and patcher for SimCity 2000 win95 edition to run on Windows Vista/7/8/10.

How to run

• Extract this repo to where you want your local SimCity 2000 game.
• Grab your SimCity 2000 CD or download the .iso from
  https://archive.org/details/SimCity2000_Special_Edition_Maxis-EA_Eng .
• Insert/mount SimCity 2000, or alternatively copy your SC2K directory to Apps/SC2K.
• Run the retrieve-files-from-cd-and-apply-patch.bat installer and patcher.
• Run the game through SimCity2000Portable.exe.

Sources

Thanks to aldude999 for creating the compatability patch:
https://www.deviantart.com/aldude999/art/SimCity-2000-Installer-For-Windows-7-Windows-10-340845297
https://bitbucket.org/aldude999/sc2k-installer