(ignore affected versions above, there is no option for older versions)

Any version old enough to require java 8 does not run. I have installed java 8 for amd and use that in the launcher configuration. Apparently what happens is the launcher downloads dylib libraries into $MINECRAFT/bin/<uuid>/ that are for x86_64 architecture. The launcher log say it cannot load libglfw.dylib from this directory even though the x86_64 version is there:

──> file bin//                                                                          1 ↵ ──(Wed,Jul27)─┘
bin/e760-b2e9-fdac-29a6/META-INF:                   directory
bin/e760-b2e9-fdac-29a6/libglfw.dylib:              Mach-O 64-bit dynamically linked shared library x86_64
bin/e760-b2e9-fdac-29a6/libglfw.dylib.git:          ASCII text, with no line terminators
bin/e760-b2e9-fdac-29a6/libglfw.dylib.sha1:         ASCII text, with CRLF line terminators
bin/e760-b2e9-fdac-29a6/libjcocoa.dylib:            Mach-O 64-bit dynamically linked shared library x86_64

....

I have downloaded or built the required dylib files but can't get minecraft to use them even though LD_LIBRARY_PATH and CLASS_PATH point to them.

So the right fix would seem to have the launcher download the amd versions of the libraries. The logs indicate it knows amd versions are required but that's not what it grabs. A work around would be a way to force minecraft to use local copies of the needed dylib files instead of downloading the wrong versions of them and trying to load them.

By the way, the main reason for wanting an older version is newer versions have the disappearing villager bug again.