Disaster: nuclear meltdown[edit]
The nuclear reactor that blows up depends on the version of the game. In most versions, a reactor to the south blows up. In the SNES version, the reactor to the far east blows up in the neighborhood region called East Boston, near Logan International Airport. You will notice that there are two parts of the airport protruding onto your playable area. Logan International Airport can be made large, but it costs about 50,000 simoleons or so. Each airport plot costs 10,000. You might have to bulldoze the southern Airport plot to maximize the size of Logan International Airport.
Also, you can make the sims happier by building the Red Sox Stadium in the far south west of the map. The building of the stadium will cost about 3,000 simoleons.
Time limit/SNES version[edit]
On the SNES version you are not permitted to play beyond 2015 AD you have to admit loss or win and move on. There is no opportunity to continue playing and developing the city to the futuristic times of Star trek to wait for the radiation to dissipate.
Boston size[edit]
The playable area of this map is only about 17 square miles in surface area. So if you heavily build up to 200,000 people, it would be about a density of 11,780 people per mile. At 400,000 people its 23,540 people per mile. The figure goes higher if the water tiles are excluded from the surface area. On the standard game, 16 tiles long was a mile but on this Boston map it's 26 and 2/3rds of a tile per mile.
- Some built up areas need to be relocated
Remember to blow up one of Boston's sky scrapers in the Northwest of the city's downtown peninsula area, next to the Charlestown nieghborhood. This has to be converted to a train station, as this will add to the transportation budget. Be creative with how you lay your tracks as this is where the subway tunnel begins. It will go under the Charles River into Charlestown. This commercial re-development will subtract from the commercial tax base but it will make the city more like the real Boston, which has many advantages. For example, it will have a beefed up mass transit system that can potentially increase your final score. There was an additional automobile tunnel that went to connect up with Logan International Airport, but it was not converted to rail. This road was built some time before 2010. If the reactor does explode in East Boston, try to preserve the airport and connect it up to the rest of the city. A rapid bus line uses the new tunnel in the far south east of the map. Although bus-type mass transit is not found in this game, building this tunnel may help allieviate traffic congestion.
Too many seaports[edit]
Although getting rid of the extra seaports may seam like a small thing, it's actually a very important task to complete. You will only need one sea port in order to keep the benefit of a higher industrial capacity. Bulldoze some of the sea ports. In most cases, you always try to bulldoze a few extra sea ports. Replace them with industrial zones and park tiles.
Land values need to be raised[edit]
Place parks in any small tiles surrounded by zones. These parks are called plazas. Build plazas in the empty spaces. Technically, not all open spaces are parks, but sometimes skyscrapers or factories can have plaza's on their side walks. Also, extra long side walks are part of this type of park.
The use of plaza type parks on SimCity Classic can raise land values all over the city, which then raises the tax base. It's necessary to do this in order to raise your score enough to win.
Cheating/Super Nintendo version[edit]
Remember to use the $999,999 cheat. In your first year, 2010, immediately drop the tax rate to zero after bulldozing the 3 nuclear reactors. You can replace your nuclear power with coal power for a total coast of $9,048. at the end of the year use the 999,999 simoleon cheat. It's not necessary to replace with coal but it's cheap. You can rebuild with nuclear (it costs $15,048) because the game only has the one nuclear explosion programmed into it.
It is possible to hold down 
or 
and bulldoze all 3 nuclear power plants. When doing this, "$1 x 16" tiles means it will cost $16 simoleons to bulldoze the square.
PC version[edit]
You cannot demolish the given nuclear power plant in hopes of avoiding the disaster; it will simply occur at a different power plant located within the city. While you can try demolishing all nuclear power plants, it will be very expensive to replace them with coal plants. On the PC version of classic SimCity, the Boston map allows you to continue playing after you have beaten it. Believe it or not, the radiation does decay and by the 2300s, Boston should be nearly free of nuclear radiation.
It may not be possible to clean up the radiation, so just bulldoze around the effected area and rebuild elsewhere. The best advice is to bulldoze only the population in the affected area and bull doze the rubble. Replace these spaces with parks to help break down the radiation in the long run. Try to maintain transportation links to help in the re-construction.
Try to do a good job because you need a decent city score to win the scenario.