So, it looks like the repo explicitly checks "user-agent" from npm:
% npm config list
; cli configs
user-agent = "npm/3.7.3 node/v5.9.1 linux x64"
Here is the supported list of versions for 4.1:
https://docs.appdynamics.com/display/PRO41/Node.js+Supported+Environments
If you override the user-agent setting, downloads will work:
% npm config set user-agent "npm/3.7.3 node/v0.10.41 linux x64"
% npm install appdynamics@4.1.8
This only allowed me to download packages, I haven't tried loading this code yet with a spoofed node version.
Also, be careful: npm will write / update ~/.npmrc with this agent string. You'll probably want to delete this or update back to the original agent string.