I have a cheapo SunPro (I think) scanner that I grabbed from Pep Boys years ago when I still had my Fox (so it was somewhere between 97-99). It works just fine and gives me my codes.
When the car is going haywire, it really is nice to be able to see live engine parameters. I've used it to fix a few GM's. What would have taken me probably an hour of metering different sensors was done in 30 seconds with the handheld. When it's 108*F outside, that's right-nice.
For basic codes, I used a paperclip for a long time. Having the LCD readout (with memory) really is nice. I used to make hash marks on paper, sometimes screwing them up, etc. Now you just let it spit codes and then use the readback feature to tell you the codes. Sometimes I'm testing other things (like solenoid activation with a test light) while codes run, so not looking at the flashes helps there too.