Redirect emulator RS232 to local login shell on Linux?

[zzip]

Not many modern computers have RS232 ports anymore,  I was wondering if it's possible to use emulators that let you specify the serial device file under /dev to instead direct it to a TTY that would give you a local login shell?   So that if you open a TERM program, you can interact with the host filesystem.   Many times this is easier than using the antiquated file managers and tools these emulated systems come with.

 

Linux and similar OSes seem designed to make this kind of thing possible, but it's been ages since I played with TTYs, and don't know what's changed.