Broken graphics card on iMac - how to access hard drive?

Hi,
it seems like the graphics card (NVIDIA GTX 680M) in my 27'' iMac late 2012 is fried.
On start up there is the chime but no white screen or Apple logo. It stays black and goes a bit dark grayish around the edge of the panel.
So I guess the panel works and therefore the GPU doesn't.
After a few seconds a frayed wide vertical blue line appears, where normally the login box would be.
After typing the password in blind, the whole screen just fills with frayed vertical blue lines.
Now since I'm obviously unable to maneuver with the mouse, is there a way to somehow remotely access my files without it having to use the GPU of the iMac (some sort of Terminal commands I can type in blindly).
I have a spare Macbook Pro mid 09.
Both machines a running the latest OS X Version/Update.
Hope somebody can help.
Thanks!

two possibilities, and a choice that depends more on your mood than anything else.
Start up the broken machine in target mode, hook it up to the working computer, and transfer whatever files you need.
Connect an external monitor (on the suspicion this is a display problem rather than a graphics card problem; the latter are rarer) and use your computer (almost) normally
there are other things you could do if needed, but these are the easiest.

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