Boston hosts the very first Penny Arcade Expo – PAX – to happen outside of Seattle, Wash. PAX East 2010 is now in full swing, and runs through Sunday. The event gathers thousands of gaming enthusiasts at Boston’s Hynes Convention Center.

Penny Arcade is a webcomic that started out as a hobby back in 1998 for Jerry “Tycho” Holkins and Mike “Gabe” Krahulik. Updated three times a week with fresh comic strips and commentary, the site now hosts 70 million page views per month.

The original PAX show is now an annual fixture that last year attracted more than 60,000 attendees. It got started in 2004 and since then has grown to become what its organizers describe as the largest gaming festival in North America. The Boston event is smaller than its Seattle counterpart, but passes for PAX East still sold out before the show started.

PAx East’s expo hall has attracted exhibitors ranging from 2K Games and Rockstar Games to Nvidia and Alienware, Electronic Arts (EA), Ubisoft and Nintendo. There’s also a full schedule of workshops and panel sessions, and console, PC, handheld and tabletop gaming is heartily encouraged in special locations. Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons also take center stage in seminars and tournaments.

Geek rock concerts are also a key part of the PAX East experience – Friday night features The Protomen, known for composing rock operas based on the popular video game Mega Man; Anamanaguchi, a “chiptune” band that makes music using a hacked Nintendo Entertainment System (NES); Metroid Metal, which performs heavy metal covers of music from the Metroid games; and MC Frontalot, popular nerdcore rapper. Saturday’s festivities include a performance by the Video Game Orchestra and musician and songwriter Jonathan Coulton, whose hit song “Still Alive” is featured in the Valve Software video game Portal.

The focus of PAX East is squarely on gaming, but is sadly away from the Macintosh and iPhone – although both are in plentiful supply in the hands of attendees and media attending the event.