shortly after the release of the games i remeber reading that magmar was in pearl/diamond, yet after checking around the internet, it looks like itsnot available, yet the item needed to evolve magmar into magmortar.
or is it only possible to get magmar through magby with leafgreen in the botom slot as ive read on bulbapedia? any help would be appreciated.

You can only get Magmar from getting Magby which you can from going to shark Mt.(and entrance) and also route 227(you need to beat the Elite 4 to get there).You Also need the Leafgreen cartridge in.

http://www.psypokes.com/dex/psydex/240/all

So it's like this.

Get a Magby until you get the magmarizer(5% in Diamond , 50% in Pearl)

Level up magby until you get Magmar(thats lv 30)

Magmar must hold the Magmarizer when trading it and would evolve(which you could do with a friend and also Wifi but that could be more risky beacuse you might not get your pokemon back)

And then you got Magmortar

thanks, i cant get a hold on most of the other version s and was just trying to see if i could save money

the only other way to do it would be to migrate a magmar from LG to Pal Park after you have the National Dex.