okay so it looks like
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.4.2/...et/Applet.html is implemented in the minecraft jar. will read more. but must need porting to some equivalent perhaps is my first guess.
I'll dig around in
http://docs.oracle.com/javame/config...217/index.html and the other docs and maybe beg Ixtab to inject my brain with his leftover java powers. However it did at least give it a shot, which is more than one might have expected. : )