Resident Evil Zero is chronologically the first game in the series, but it's actually a prequel that was released as the sixth mainline game. It debuted as a GameCube exclusive back in 2002.

and who had a Nintendo GameCube to play it, as it was exclusive to the console until 2008, almost certainly bought and played Resident Evil Zero, a prequel to the first Resident Evil game of 1996.

Resident Evil Zero released a few years later in 2002 for GameCube and focuses on the story of Rebecca Chambers and Billy ...