This build from [mircemk] is of the latter variety, repurposing a VFD display to do the job ... much the same way as the familiar HD44780 character LCD driver chip. With some minor tweaks ...

[visrealm] took the concept and expanded upon it, even adding a 16×2 LCD that let’s you play Snake by moving a single pixel on the character display! Making the most of tiny resolution is ...