According to vpurger and quoting the wiki "
you can also use VMware Console from a client computer" and this is what I usually did and do now.
You can also start and stop you machines via command line; some examples:
/usr/bin/vmware-cmd "/var/lib/vmware/Virtual Machines/Windows XP Professional/Windows XP Professional.vmx" getstate
/usr/bin/vmware-cmd "/var/lib/vmware/Virtual Machines/Windows XP Professional/Windows XP Professional.vmx" stop
/usr/bin/vmware-cmd "/var/lib/vmware/Virtual Machines/Windows XP Professional/Windows XP Professional.vmx" start
Take a look here too:
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/345001 Nicola