Wow, memories !
In 1999 my boss bought a whole load of Samsung DVD players. He got them cheap from a distro. Any way, I went home and found out you could do the Aiwa remote hack. Asked my pal down the street if I could borrow his remote and take it to work....
Needless to say that afternoon we had about 30 region free players, and I got one free for my troubles
That was my first one !