Not so sure about heroes ... but I know of a number of
clever blokes involved in the retro-computer scene.
It's amazing what some of those guys come up with in the way of interfaces (
etc.} that allow thirty-year old eight-bit computers (for example) to use the latest "technologies" (stuff that was not even dreamed about back in the 1980's).
And most (if not all) are simply "enthusiastic amateurs" (in the Good Old British tradition), cranking out brilliant little
hacks, usually at "pocket money" prices.
Not only the hardware, but the software too (intertwined as they generally are these days, as you have already hinted).
