I think a great addition to the DATs and to ClrMAME itself would be the following:

* A new entry in the dat for images such as:

image ( name "imagename" type "screenshot" size crc )

where type could be any number of strings, such as screenshot, boxart, etc.

* A new entry for text files such as:

textfile ( name "textname" type "nfo" size crc )

same as above for the type option.

When viewing the ROMs in Scanner, you could have the option to view the ROMs that you DO have, and when you clicked to view the details, alongside the ROM list that you normally get, you would get a little picture view as well as a text box below it. There would be two drop-down lists, one for the image and one for the textfile, allowing you to pick from the different "types" for that romset.

I think this would be GREAT for historical purposes, and for a little more nostalga ;) (If anyone here uses MAME32, think of the history.dat and screens, that kind of stuff is what I'm thinking about.)

Good idea? Bad idea? Already been brought up a million times?

EDIT: Oh, and I forgot one thing... Those two new tags/entries should be available under the main DAT entry as well (to allow for information/pictures of the system itself)... Dunno where the best place to VIEW those would be though