I had the magnifier, but it had a light built in...which I think was the main reason I bought it. Eventually I wound up with one of those Worm Lights, which looking back were pretty sucky in themselves, but you had to do what you had to do when there was no backlit screen.
My first system was either a GBA SP or a regular GBA. For some reason, the old link cable came to mind, and I kind of miss those...
I don't miss those at all. Wireless communication is so much more convenient. It always sucked when you had a friend with Pokemon but didn't have a Link Cable so you couldn't do anything with them.
I or my friends always had link cables so that wasn't much of an issue. It was just annoying 'cause it took so long.
I would trade with my brother and we had a link cable. With friends... oddly, no one at school reallyplayed the Game Boy games. They liked the anime and the cards but didn't have the games (well, the Game Boy games anyway. They had Stadium). I knew one person with Yellow. But he had a GameShark, so... why trade? I got a Mew out of him though XD