Any way to reset system preferences without being able to see the screen?

I did something really stupid -- I'm running 10.5.8 on Mac mini with a 720p television as a monitor.  The system rez seemed a bit too low so I wanted to change it.  I went to System Prefs, Display and before I even picked a rez, a window popped up and read (paraphrasing) that a low system rez, (it gave a number, I think it was 640x480, could have been 800x600), might not be compatible with the software (OS?) -- so I clicked "Okay" unwittingly, thinking it telling me for my info and not that it was on the verge of applying that rez when I clicked "Okay".  I got one brief glimpse of the screen as the rez changed -- then it went to black.
I tried booting from the install disc but without re-installing the OS I couldn't get to the System Prefs.

Yes, the screen was visible when booted from the Install Disc.  Safe Boot would have been my next try but I couldn't remember what key to hold.  Thanks for the reminder.  My impatience, however, led me to take the easy, but sure, way out by re-installing the OS. 
Of course, being on a hot streak, I reinstalled from the original discs (Tiger, but there was no designation as such on the actual disc), forgetting that I had upgraded to Leopard, so I moved backwards in the OS category and in doing so found that Tiger takes up about 9 more gb then Leopard which I really need.  And the app for the project to which I was dedicating that mini -- VHS to .mov copying -- informed me that it didn't work with "the current OS", despite the mfgr (Roxio) listing 10.4 as a useable OS.
I'm going to re-reinstall the OS -- this time with Snow Leopard with a complete hd wipe (hoping to get back a lot of disc space) and be extra, extra careful the next time I attempt to change the screen rez.  I kinda wish I had been patient enough to strive for a solution to my original problem, especially since haven't actually saved any time by reinstalling.  I think I'll attempt to recreate the problem if I can since I'm going to reinstall again anyway and try the Safe Boot.  If it works it would certainly be worth knowing.

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