Bad Things: Recursive event listener creation

recursionAlternative.js

// a way to recurse through ports until an open port is found
// based upon the Node.js documentation

var http = require('http');

var listenerCounter = 1;
var port = 8000;

var HTTPserver = http.createServer(function (request, response) {

    response.writeHead(200);
    response.end("hello from server on port: " + port);
});

console.log('trying to Open: ' + port);
HTTPserver
    .listen(port, function () {
        console.log('we have created ' + listenerCounter + ' http server listeners');
        listenerCounter++;
        console.log('HTTP listening:' + port);
    })
    .on('error', function (err) {
        if (err.code === 'EADDRINUSE') {
            port++;
            console.log('Address in use, retrying on port ' + port);
            setTimeout(function () {
                HTTPserver.listen(port);
            }, 250);
        }

    });

recursionDeath.js

// a VERY bad way to recurse through ports.
// using this will probably result in crashes happening if it has to scan more than three or four ports...

var http = require('http');
var url = require('url');
var path = require('path');
var fs = require('fs');

var listenerCounter = 1;
var errorCounter = 1;

var HTTPserver = http.createServer(function (request, response) {
    response.writeHead(200);
    response.end("hello from server on port: " + port);
});

var tryToOpenServer = function(port, callerId){
    console.log('trying to Open: ' + port);
    HTTPserver
        .listen(port, function()
        {
            console.log('we have created ' + listenerCounter + ' http server from caller ' + callerId);
            listenerCounter++;
            console.log('HTTP listening:' + port);
        })
        .on('error', function(err)
        {
            if (err.code === 'EADDRINUSE')
            {
                // port is currently in use
                console.log('server Open error:' + port);
                console.log('we have created ' + errorCounter + ' error event handler from ' + callerId);
                var thisId = errorCounter;
                errorCounter++;

                tryToOpenServer(port + 1, thisId);
            }

        });
};
tryToOpenServer(8000,0);

second iteration (port 8002)

// when port 8000 and 8001 are busy, we start to see bad things happen as listeners proliferate...

trying to Open: 8000
server Open error:8000
we have created 1 error event handler from 0
trying to Open: 8001
server Open error:8000
we have created 2 error event handler from 0
trying to Open: 8001
server Open error:8001
we have created 3 error event handler from 1
trying to Open: 8002
server Open error:8000
we have created 4 error event handler from 0
trying to Open: 8001
server Open error:8001
we have created 5 error event handler from 1
trying to Open: 8002
server Open error:8001
we have created 6 error event handler from 2
trying to Open: 8002
server Open error:8002
we have created 7 error event handler from 3
trying to Open: 8003
we have created 1 http server from caller 0
HTTP listening:8000
we have created 2 http server from caller 1
HTTP listening:8001
we have created 3 http server from caller 2
HTTP listening:8001
we have created 4 http server from caller 3
HTTP listening:8002
we have created 5 http server from caller 4
HTTP listening:8001
we have created 6 http server from caller 5
HTTP listening:8002
we have created 7 http server from caller 6
HTTP listening:8002
we have created 8 http server from caller 7
HTTP listening:8003

Not working in node 12, soo sad :(