Requires Java 5 or later. 1GHz G4e or better recommended.
To install mods in Minecraft, you must open the primary minecraft resource file called Minecraft.jar (located in [UserNameHere]/Library/Application Support/minecraft/bin). The easiest way to do this is to append .zip to the name (minecraft.jar.zip) and double click to extract the file. It will expand to a folder 'minecraft.jar'. This folder will be accepted by Minecraft to be a valid .jar file. There's no need to re-compress it. Just put the files of the mod in this folder as specified by the mod's instructions. TIP: save the minecraft.jar.zip incase you botch your Minecraft installation with an incompatible mod. Just delete the broken minecraft.jar folder & unzip yourself an new one by double clicking minecraft.jar.zip again.
It it recommended by many users for you to upgrade your LWJGL. Prior to release 1.6, Minecraft used LWJGL 2.4.2. The new Minecraft Launcher is capable of automatically updating to the latest stable version. Because this is an older version of Minecraft, we don't have that luxury. The library is located in your Minecraft resource folder's bin folder. The newest Minecraft releases are currently using the LWJGL 3.0 series, but the older 2.0 series can still be downloaded here (2.8.4 is generally the recommended version to update to). Just replace the "jinput.jar", "lwjgl.jar"& "lwjgl_util.jar" files in your /minecraft/bin folder resource folder & the "libjinput-osx.jnilib"& "liblwjgl.jnilib" inside your /minecraft/bin/natives folder. The "openal.dylib"& "libopenal.dylib" should only be replaced if you're on an intel mac as the newer builds are intel only. To replace the "libopenal.dylib" create a copy of openal.dylib, then rename it to "libopenal.dylib". More info on this upgrade process can be found here.
Minecraft 1.6.1 introduced "resource packs", which allowed alternate sounds, music, particle effects and much more to be altered in game, in addition to modifying block, item, and entity textures. These resource packs are not compatible with older builds of the game. You must use the older Minecraft texture packs.
Other Pre-1.6 Minecraft Mac tips & tricks can be found in this article.
NOTICE
This upload is intended for users who can't run the newer version of the Minecraft Launcher (such as Java 5 users). If you have mac capable of running the newer launcher please purchase Minecraft instead. Thank you:)