Link cable shit was mostly garbage because no one I knew wanted to deal with sending off their hard-trained mons or not being able to change the nicknames (I was a huge nicknamefag and just about everyone I knew hated it).
By the time Gen2 rolled around, my dad got me Silver and picrel and I came to understand the actual fun of Pokemon wasn't in the time-wasting raising/breeding, but in making interesting teams without any of the bullshit and seeing how far you could take them in Stadium.