I've verified my host file in windows/system32/drivers/etc/ has an entry for localhost in it, but it's not going anywhere. I have to have a port number in the URL: http://127.0.0.1:8888/
Is there anything I can do to get localhost working without the need for a port number?
Your EasyPHP is probably configured to listen on port 8888.
You must configure EasyPHP to listen on port 80 as well.
For your information, the default port for HTTP is the port 80, so when you don't give any port information in the url, your browser is trying to connect on port 80.
You can follow this tutorial : http://technology.ohmygoh.com/easyphp-how-to-change-apache-server-port/