In May 2013, Sonic Retro Researcher Orengefox posted his discovery of a Sonic Adventure prototype that is "without a shadow of a doubt the earliest Sonic Adventure prototype we've acquired". The build contains early Chao Garden music, unused graphics, a nameless Froggy, and several clues about early versions of Windy Valley amongst other things.

In preparation for Sonic Adventure, Sonic Team conducted a trip to Central and South America. This was done because none of the developers had ever seen environments like ruins and jungles, and the team wanted to make a realistic world for the game. Some of the pictures they had taken were used as textures for the game. Tails' Sand Hill sub game was even inspired by people boarding on sand dunes in Ica, Peru.

To celebrate the release of Sonic Adventure, Yuji Naka (former head of Sonic Team) joined a line of fans in Tokyo's Akihabara district waiting to purchase the game. Accompanying him were 4 people dressed as Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy.

Windy Valley went through major visual changes during the game's development. In the intro sequence, Tails and Big can be seen standing in an early prototype of this stage. In fact, Big isn't even able to access Windy Valley in the final game.

In the first Japanese release for the Dreamcast, a mechanical cowgirl billboard could be seen within Casinopolis. It would moan whenever the player touched it and was removed in international copies of the game for obvious reasons. This version however was also toned down from the Sonic Adventure Auto Demo prototype, where the girl was a fully fleshed playboy-style bunny. [Image credit: evilhamwizard]

The hidden black Chao egg found within the Egg Carrier has a unique texture in the original version for the Dreamcast. It was blue and black with pink spots. This was probably so that it would fit in better with its surroundings. This was changed in later releases of the game to solid black. Opening it will hatch a regular black Chao with seemingly no special qualities, however.

The Dreamcast disk has a PC-readable folder named "extras" that contains nine different wallpapers based on the playable characters, plus one of a Chao. Some of these pictures would later be used in the gallery in Sonic Mega Collection's Extras menu.

In the Dreamcast version of Sonic Adventure, you can explore under the deep water in the Egg Carrier Chao Garden. Under the water lies a secret ring far out of reach. This was removed in the DX update, because the depth of the water was reduced, probably to prevent Chao from swimming out of reach and getting stuck in the terrain.

Knuckles' theme song, Unknown from M.E., incorrectly states that he is a porcupine.

The song "Twinkle Cart", used when Sonic first enters the Twinkle Park stage during his story, is a remade version of Panic Puppet Act 1 from the Genesis version of Sonic 3D Blast. The composer of both is Jun Senoue, the guitarist and keyboardist who is a key member of the band Crush 40.

The background music in the second area of Windy Valley, The Air, is an arrangement of the music from Green Grove Zone in the Sega Genesis version of Sonic 3D Blast.

Some of the textures used for E-105 ζ are actually pictures of Dreamcasts.

Cream has several cameos in Sonic Adventure DX. She flies by after Sonic and Tails clear Casinopolis, she can seen by Big in the same area, and Amy spots her flying by the train station at Station Square.

In Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure DX, there is an unused dragon boss with two heads.

According to a Retro Gamer Magazine article, the Sonic World level in Sonic Jam was a prototype of Sonic Adventure, based on the development that had been done at the time for the Saturn. "Due to technical issues and the timing of the upcoming Dreamcast project... we then moved development for Sonic Adventure to the Dreamcast," said producer Takashi Iizuka.

Perfect Chaos' appearance in Sonic Generations is different to its appearance in Sonic Adventure. In that game, it was a creature made entirely out of water, whereas in Sonic Generations, it has scaly, reptile-like skin. According to an interview with Takashi Iizuka in the Prima Strategy Guide for Sonic Generations, Perfect Chaos' 2011 design is how the team had originally planned the monster; it had had to be changed in Sonic Adventure due to the technical restraints of the Dreamcast.

There are various unused voice clips, all belonging to Tikal. One of these clips are instructions on how to transform into Super Sonic. As such, it was probably a dropped feature.

Sonic Adventure is the first Sonic game to feature downloadable content, as the Dreamcast was the first ever video game console to have online capabilities out of the box. DLC ranged from celebratory holiday decorations in the Adventure Fields and a few levels, such as on Christmas and Halloween, to national ranking contests and the addition of the Chao Black Market.

An image of some staff members from Sonic Team, and a picture of a blue spined hedgehog, can be found in the game's data.

Dred Foxx, who voices Parappa in Parappa the Rapper, rapped the lyrics for "Unknown from M.E." (Knuckles' Theme).