Meanwhile I'd just use the framebuffer here with tmux, and a parallel tty with my $HOME/bin/fbplayer script:

    #!/bin/sh
    clear
    setterm -cursor off
    echo -en "\e]P0000000"
    mplayer -really-quiet -vo fbdev2 -vf scale=:-1 "$@"  
    setterm -cursor on
    echo -en "\e]P01d2229"
    clear

Add mailx, sacc, bollux, irssi, bitlbee, cmus, fbpdf2 and fim and I won't use X any more. Even mednafen and ScummVM work with

    export SDL_VIDEODRIVER=fbcon

Try it.